TO 


Tl/lY       7j 


33  f/ 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY 


BY 

a 

Author  of  "  A  Squire  of  Low  Degree. 


He  that  feeds  men  serveth  few; 
He  serves  all  who  dares  be  true. 

Emerson. 


NEW  YORK 

MERRILL  &  BAKER 

74  5th 


COPYRIGHTED  1893. 

LILY    A.    LONG. 


23 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

By  LILY  A.  LONG. 


I. 

THE  clock  on  the  mantel  struck  eleven  in  a  subdued 
tone,  discharging  an  official  duty  as  unobstrusively  as 
possible.  Joyce  Mabie  looked  up  absently,  glanced  at  the 
waiting  breakfast-table  where  a  silver  lamp  with  a  tiny 
flame  was  keeping  a  cup  of  chocolate  warm,  and  theii 
lapsed  back  into  her  magazine.  A  heap  of  newspapers 
and  journals  lay  beside  her  upon  the  floor  and  from  time 
to  time  she  interrupted  her  reading  to  make  extracts  in  a 
methodical  way.  It  was  not  mere  young  lady  notetak- 
ing.  She  was  reading  for  a  purpose,  and  the  extracts 
which  she  made  were  carefully  arranged  on  sheets  for  the 
printer. 

The  clock  ticked  on,  mentioning  deprecatingly  that  the 
seconds  were  running  into  long  minutes,  though  really  it 
didn't  matter  in  the  least,  but  Joyce  did  not  move  again 
until  a  side  door  opened  and  her  father,  girding  his  dress 
ing-gown  with  a  silken  cord,  came  into  the  room.  Then 
she  dropped  her  papers  to  lean  back  and  look  at  him, 
silently,  with  a  quizzical  smile. 

"Yes,  I  know,"  he  said  gaily.  "The  eleventh  hour. 
That  is  rather  characteristic  of  me,  I  am  afraid,  in  more 
matters  than  breakfasts." 


4  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"  What  objection  is  there  to  the  eleventh  hour,  ab 
stractly  considered  ? "  she  asked  meditatively.  She  rose 
as  she  spoke  and  crossed  the  room  to  the  waiting  table. 
"  It  is  just  as  long  as  any  other  and  just  as  good, — for 
breakfasts  or  anything  else." 

"  You're  a  good  girl  not  to  scold,  but  you'd  be  a  better 
housewife  if  you  did,"  her  father  retorted. 

He  stopped  before  an  easel,  and  pulled  his  gray  mous 
tache  impatiently  while  he  scrutinized  a  painting  in  oils 
that  still  stood  as  when  he  had  stopped  working  at  it  yes 
terday.  There  had  been  people  in  the  world  so  sternly 
virtuous  as  to  doubt  whether  a  moustache  so  ostenta 
tiously  handsome  could  ever  admit  a  man  to  heaven. 
Perhaps  this  doubt  was  offset  by  the  devout  faith  held,  if 
not  confessed,  by  certain  others,  that  heaven  would  be  a 
dreary  waste  without  it.  But  all  this  pertained  to  the 
days  when  the  drooping  moustache  was  brown  instead  of 
gray,  and  the  lips  it  shaded  did  not  know  how  a  tall 
daughter's  kiss  differs  from  any  other.  His  daughter, 
who  had  poured  his  chocolate  and  heaped  a  plate  with 
early  strawberries  for  him,  came  to  his  side  now,  and 
looked  at  the  head  with  him.  It  was  a  "  Spartan  Boy," 
and  Joyce  had  been  his  model.  But  she  was  thinking  of 
him,  in  a  desultory  way,  rather  than  of  the  picture.  She 
wondered  what  the  decisive  circumstance  had  been  that 
turned  him  to  the  career  of  an  artist.  If  chance,  it  was 
a  lucky  one,  for  there  would  have  been  a  woful  waste  of 
his  most  characteristic  qualities  if  he  had  elected, — as  he 
easily  might,  being  an  American, — to  go  into  business 
instead. 

He  had  picked  up  a  brush  and  was  doing  some  rapid 
and  nervous  work  upon  the  head  before  him,  but  when  he 
spoke  it  was  with  a  gentle  deliberation  and  a  soft  avoid 
ance  of  all  final  r's  that  conveyed  an  indefinable  sugges 
tion  of  habitual  indolence. 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  5 

"  That  remark  of  yours  about  the  eleventh  hour  being 
all  right  shows  a  freedom  from  prejudice  and  a  breadth 
of  thought  that  I  am  rather  proud  of,"  he  said,  without 
looking  at  her.  "  Most  women  are  slaves  of  tradi 
tion." 

"  Oh,  I'm  not  sure  that  is  so,"  she  said  quickly. 

"  Yes,  it  is.  Come,  when  I  declare  you  an  exception 
you  ought  to  be  sufficiently  placated  to  let  me  say  what  I 
please  about  the  rest  of  them.  Women  generally  don't 
invent  opinions.  They  don't  even  revise  them.  Some 
body, — some  man, — who  had  an  east  bedroom  and  no 
curtains,  must  have  started  the  theory  that  to  rise  early  is 
an  act  of  virtue.  The  women  of  his  household  accepted 
the  dictum,  in  time  it  was  transformed  into  a  traditipn, 
and  now  it  requires  a  bold  and  original  mind  to  discern 
that  one  hour  is  intrinsically  as  good  as  another." 

"  In  Bohemia,  perhaps.  But  it  is  just  as  well  that 
landladies  and  railroad  conductors  aren't  Bohemians. 
Do  you  know  that  your  chocolate  is  getting  cold  ?  " 

He  threw  down  his  brush,  frowned  at  his  work  for  a 
moment,  and  then  sat  down  to  the  little  table  where  the 
dainty  service  for  one  was  spread. 

"  You  have  breakfasted  ?  " 

"  Yes,  but  I'll  sit  here,  so  that  you  won't  have  to  bear 
the  full  penalty  of  your  tardiness." 

"  Ah,  that  is  nice."  He  leaned  back  and  surveyed  her 
as  he  had  looked  at  the  picture.  "  But  I  wish  you  had 
done  your  hair  higher  !  " 

"  Oh  dear,  I  thought  I  had  it  right  this  time,"  she 
exclaimed,  twisting  her  head  to  get  a  glimpse  of  herself 
in  the  mirror  over  the  mantel.  The  picture  would  have 
been  satisfactory  enough  to  most  observers. 

"  Don't  you  see  it  is  too  square  ?  A  touch, — so.  That 
reminds  me,  Joyce,  I  saw  something  down  the  street  yes 
terday  that  I  want  you  to  have  a  gown  of.  It  was  an 


6  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

exquisite  thing, — a  sort  of  silk  tissue,  loose,  with  threads 
like  dull  gold — 

"  Nonsense,  papa,  don't  think  of  such  extravagance," 
she  interrupted  quickly.  "  I  have  quantities  of  things 
now,  and  I  wouldn't  have  the  least  use  for  a  gown  of 
tissue  of  gold." 

"  Oh,  well,  just  as  you  please,"  he  answered  somewhat 
petulantly.  The  protest  in  her  voice  and  manner  irri 
tated  him.  "I  only  thought  it  would  bring  out  that  occa 
sional  gleam  of  color  in  your  hair.  It  isn't  that  I  care 
the  least  bit  for  you,  you  ungrateful  wretch.  I'll  have  it 
for  a  curtain  instead." 

"As  you  please,  dear  papa.  I  shan't  feel  personally 
responsible  for  your  spendthrift  ways,  then." 

"  Spendthrift  ways,  indeed,"  he  retorted.  "  For  whose 
sake  have  I  run  myself  hopelessly  in  debt,  I'd  like  to 
know  ? " 

"  For  mine,"  she  said  contritely.  "  Because  you  wanted 
to  make  me  believe  I  was  a  princess  of  Bohemia,  when  I 
left  school.  And  the  royal  exchequer  didn't  correspond 
with  the  royal  taste  in  matters  of  furnishing." 

"  It  never  has,  worse  luck,"  he  said  gloomily.  "  I  wish 
I  hadn't  told  you  the  things  weren't  paid  for.  You've 
never  half  enjoyed  them  since." 

He  looked  as  though  he  hoped  she  would  deny  this, 
but  she  had  turned  away  to  look  at  the  arrangement  of 
the  room, — perhaps  to  avoid  the  necessity  of  replying. 
It  was  a  pretty  room,  exceedingly  pretty,  with  a  curious 
mingling  of  splendor  and  carelessness.  There  were  rugs 
that  would  have  been  befitting  in  a  palace,  curtains  of  a 
texture  and  color  that  would  have  filled  the  heart  cf  an 
oriental,  and  odd  bits  of  furniture  that  only  an  artist  or 
a  woman  could  have  discovered.  A  dozen  sketches, 
mostly  caricatures  and  cartoons,  and  all  signed  "Tom 
Garner,"  were  pinned  against  the  walls,  and  a  portfolio 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  J 

that  had  fallen  and  spilled  its  contents  upon  the  floor 
betrayed  the  work  of  the  same  vigorous  hand.  There 
was  a  warmth  and  color  about  it  all  well  calculated  to 
charm  an  impressionable  young  girl,  such  as  Joyce  was, 
but  she  did  not  look  charmed.  Her  eyelids  drooped  with 
the  same  shadowy  constraint  that  had  already  betrayed 
itself  once  or  twice  in  her  manner. 

"  Oh,  well,  this  is  only  an  interlude,"  her  father  said 
rather  sharply,  as  though  she  had  spoken.  "  Pretty  soon 
the  '  Humorist '  will  discover  that  it  doesn't  want  any  more 
of  Tom  Garner's  illustrations  for  its  jokes,  and  then  we 
will  go  to  some  cheap  boarding-house,  with  horse-hair 
upholstery  and  beef-and-cabbage  dinners,  and  try  to 
impress  our  new  friends  by  tales  of  our  former  splendor 
when  we  had  the  swellest  suite  of  apartments  in  the 
Transitu." 

"  A  plain  garret  would  be  better,  if  it  came  to  that,  papa." 

"  Garrets  might,  in  one  sense,  be  out  of  reach,"  he  haz 
arded. 

"  One  of  your  old,  delightful  studios,  then." 

He  let  his  eyes  rest  upon  her. 

"  They  were  spacious  enough  for  me,  but  my  daughter 
has  grown  too  tall  for  their  doors.  We  must  consider 
something  else." 

"Why,  are  you  considering  it,  seriously  ?  " 

He  was  so  long  in  answering  that  she  jumped  up  and 
went  to  him,  and  took  his  face  in  her  hands. 

"  Papa,  are  you  ? " 

"  My  dear,  there  never  was  a  man  to  whom  the  unex 
pected  was  surer  to  happen  than  to  me.  It  has  always 
been  so,  from  the  time  my  father  discovered  my  first 
attempts  at  caricature  on  the  blank  pages  of  the  family 
Bible  to  the  time  when  your  other  grandfather  refused, 
contrary  to  all  precedent,  to  forgive  me  for  eloping  with 
his  daughter.  So  you  must  be  prepared  to  take  your 


8  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

chances  as  long  as  you  persist  in  preferring  me  to  any 
other  man." 

The  girl's  face  had  softened  suddenly  at  the  latter  part 
of  this  speech,  and  now  she  bent  to  kiss  him  before  she 
released  his  face. 

"  I  like  you  best,"  she  said  softly. 

Then  she  slipped  away  from  him  and  set  to  work  gath 
ering  up  the  papers  on  the  floor.  His  eyes  lingered  upon 
her.  She  did  not  lapse  into  the  fervor  of  kisses  as  often 
nowadays  as  she  had  a  year  ago  when  she  first  came  back 
to  him  from  the  boarding-school  which  had  practically 
been  her  home  through  her  growing  years.  He  half 
resented  her  habitual  composure.  It  indicated  a  change 
in  her  and  possibly  a  change  in  her  estimate  of  him  and 
of  their  life.  Wasn't  she  happy  ?  Didn't  she  have  every 
reason  to  be  happy,  with  a  father  who  indulged  her  every 
whim  and  was  proud  of  her  ?  For  he  was  proud  of  her. 
She  was  a  credit  to  him  artistically,  and  she  pleased  him. 
He  vaguely  objected  to  the  phase  of  seriousness  which 
she  had  lately  developed,  perhaps  seeing  in  it  a  protest 
against  his  own  non-serious  aims  and  methods,  yet  he 
was  "keenly  conscious  of  the  elusive  charm  which  it  had 
brought  into  her  young  eyes.  It  had  awakened  her  from 
the  vapid  stage  of  girlishness  in  which  pretty  features 
are  an  unlit  lamp.  If  he  wasn't  altogether  sure  that  he 
liked  the  form  which  the  awakening  had  taken,  at  least 
he  was  too  much  impressed  by  it  to  attempt  coercion. 
But  for  the  matter  of  that,  Thomas  Garner  Mabie  had 
never  been  remarkable  for  his  success  in  bending  things 
to  his  will. 

"What  is  the  news  to-day?"  he  asked  as  she  folded  up 
the  morning  paper.  "  It  is  the  proper  thing  to  take  the 
news  with  one's  breakfast,  isn't  it  ?  " 

"And  you  always  endeavor  to  do  the  proper  thing, 
don't  you,  dear  papa  ?  " 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  Q 

"Of  course  I  do,  Miss  Impertinence,  though  my  efforts 
don't  seem  to  meet  with  the  recognition  that  they  de 
serve." 

"  Perhaps  the  recognition  is  measured  by  their  success." 

He  leaned  back  to  smile  at  her  appreciatively. 

"  Oh,  well  !     You  are  my  only  daughter  !  " 

"  Will  you  have  the  political  situation  ? "  she  asked, 
opening  the  paper  and  glancing,  with  a  feminine  desire 
to  do  her  duty,  at  the  big  headlines. 

He  returned  to  his  strawberries.  "  No.  What  do 
political  situations  amount  to  ?  The  king  marches  down 
hill  and  then  marches  up  again.  Awfully  stupid." 

"  Here  is  an  account  of  a  workingman's  league " 

"  Skip  that, — or  save  it  for  Karl  Bahrdt  and  his  '  Jus 
tice.'  By  the  way,  aren't  you  beginning  to  be  a  little  tired 
of  that  '  Justice  '  work?  "  He  glanced  at  her  careful  pile 
of  manuscript  with  a  smile  of  amusement  which  he  took 
little  pains  to  conceal. 

"  I  like  it,"  she  said  quickly,  lifting  her  eyes  with  an 
air  of  being  at  once  on  the  defensive. 

"  As  much  as  ever  ?  " 

"  More  than  ever,  as  I  know  more  about  it." 

"  Has  Karl  made  you  managing  editor  yet?  " 

The  color  had  come  into  her  face  and  she  found  it  hard 
to  keep  perfect  composure  under  his  teasing  questions, 
but  she  made  a  brave  feint. 

'Justice  '  isn't  big  enough  for  more  than  one  editor  at  a 
time,  and  Mr.  Bahrdt  hasn't  intimated  that  he  thinks  of 
giving  it  up." 

He  watched  her  with  an  amused  air,  understanding  her 
restiveness  perfectly  and  enjoying  it. 

"  Well,  isn't  Karl's  position  a  good  deal  of  a  sinecure  ? 
I  am  sure  if  all  your  effusions  are  printed,  it  must  be 
easy  work  to  fill  in  the  fraction  of  a  page  left  for  editorial 
comment." 


IO  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"  Oh,  my  work  doesn't  amount  to  much  after  it  is  put 
into  type." 

"Doesn't  amount  to  much  in  quantity?    Or  quality?" 

"  I  was  thinking  of  quantity,  as  it  happened.  The 
work  itself  is  worth  doing, — even  if  I  don't  do  much.  It 
is  making  selections  from  other  papers,  mostly,  and  keep 
ing  track  of  what  is  going  on." 

"  Is  it  all  scissors  and  paste  ?  I  thought  you  occasion 
ally  let  your  imagination  loose  on  labor  statistics,  and 
things  of  that  sort." 

"  If  I  happen  to  know  anything  about  the  subject,  I 
sometimes  do,"  she  admitted  half  defiantly.  "  But  of 
course  it  all  goes  to  Mr.  Bahrdt." 

"Bahrdt  is  all  right,  and  his  ideas  make  no  man  so  un 
comfortable  as  himself.  He  is  a  child  of  the  generation. 
But  don't  take  his  theories  too  seriously,  Joyce.  What's 
the  use  of  it  all  ?" 

Joyce  looked  up  with  argument  in  every  feature,  but  in 
a  moment  she  changed  her  mind  about  the  advisability  of 
pursuing  the  subject  and  fell  back  upon  the  paper. 

"  Here  is  a  big  bank  failure, "she  suggested  tentatively. 

"  That  doesn't  concern  us,  because  we  never  had  any 
money  to  put  in  a  bank  in  all  our  improvident  lives,"  he 
responded  cheerfully.  "  That  points  out  one  of  the  dis 
advantages  of  hoarding  wealth,  my  child.  Take  warning 
in  time.  What  next  ?  " 

"  Mr.  Richardson  has  returned  to  the  city,"  she  went  on, 
with  her  eyes  upon  the  paper. 

But  he  had  dropped  his  napkin  and  exclaimed  "  What  ?  " 
with  a  face  so  startled  that  she  looked  up  in  surprise, 
and  then  she  laughed. 

"  Ah,  that's  what  comes  of  having  an  uneasy  con 
science  !  "  she  cried  with  a  merry  malice  that  was  like  a 
gleam  of  sunlight  over  a  shadowy  lake.  "  You're  afraid 
he'll  find  you  out,  you  audacious,  bribing,  unscrupulous 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  1 1 

man  !  Do  you  think  that  as  soon  as  he  enters  his  picture 
gallery  he  will  begin  to  sniff  the  air  suspiciously  and  hurry 
at  once  to  his  precious  Daubigny  in  the  corner  and 
cry  out,  '  Who's  been  making  a  copy  of  my  Daubigny, 
without  leave  or  license  ?  Who's  bribed  the  janitor  to  let 
him  in  while  he  made  the  copy  ?'  Do  you  really  think  he 
will,  dear  ?  Could  you  possibly  have  left  a  smudge  of 
paint  somewhere  about?  Or  dropped  a  color-tube,  with 
your  initials  on  it,  for  instance  ? " 

"  My  dear  Joyce,  I  wish  you  would  be  more  careful,"  he 
exclaimed  impatiently.     "  If  any  word  should    get  about 


"I  am  not  likely  to  tell  tales,"  she  said  proudly. 
"  Though  it  wasn't  a  capital  crime,  at  the  worst  !  He 
would  have  let  you  in,  if  he  had  been  here,  and  when  he 
finds  out  about  it  he  will  only  say,  '  Well,  if  that  isn't  like 
Tom  Garner  !  ' ' 

"  Have  you  exhausted  the  subject  ? "  he  asked 
drily. 

The  color  flashed  into  her  face.  It  was  not  often  he 
took  that  tone  with  her.  It  might  have  indicated  to  her 
that  he  was  more  deeply  disturbed  than  her  mischievous 
teasing  alone  would  account  for,  but  a  school-girl's  suf 
focating  shame  under  reproof  swept  away  all  power  of 
reasoning,  and  her  only  thought  was  to  hold  the  paper  so 
that  he  could  not  see  her  crimson  cheeks  and  to  keep  her 
voice  as  cool  as  possible.  At  least  he  shouldn't  know  that 
she  minded  so  much  ! 

"  Here  is  another  Mysterious  Disappearance,"  she  said 
in  a  moment  with  forced  animation.  "  Where  do  you  sup 
pose  the  people  go  to  who  mysteriously  disappear  every 
now  and  then  ?  They  are  like  the  pins." 

"  Oh,  it  is  easy  enough." 

"  But  can  you  imagine  what  would  make  a  man  want  to 
lose  his  identity  ?  Think  of  dropping  one's  hold  on 


12  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

everything  familiar  and  standing,  shivering,  in  a  new 
world  !  " 

"  He  doesn't  think  of  it  in  that  dramatic  way.  He  gen 
erally  disappears  because  something  more  familiar  -than 
pleasant,  with  a  blue  coat  and  a  truncheon,  wants  to  get 
a  hold  upon  him.  I  have  sometimes  been  tempted  to  dis 
appear  myself,  just  to  escape  being  everlastingly  dunned." 

She  dropped  her  paper  and  followed  him  with  a  dis 
turbed  look  as  he  rose  impatiently  from  the  table  and 
went  back  to  stare  at  his  picture  with  that  same  uncertain 
frown.  She  did  not  answer,  but  her  thoughts  ran  on  rap 
idly  enough.  This  question  of  money  seemed  to  trail  a 
blight  over  everything.  She  was  young,  with  a  capacity 
for  deep  enthusiasm  and  strenuous  ideals.  She  thought 
she  had  begun  to  see,  during  the  last  few  months,  what 
life  might  be  made  to  mean,  if  one  took  it  up  seriously,  as 
Karl  Bahrdt  did,  for  instance,  and  she  chafed  at  the 
thought  that  the  actuality  into  which  she  was  drawn  was 
cheap  and  unideal.  Since  she  had  learned,  half  by  acci 
dent,  that  they  were  in  debt  withal,  she  had  been  stung 
with  a  sense  of  actual  shame.  She,  who  aspired  to  a 
higher  standard  of  living,  was  forced  even  below  the  aver 
age  in  the  simple  matter  of  honesty  !  The  slender  salary 
that  she  drew  for  her  work  on  Karl  Bahrdt's  "  Justice  "  was 
at  times  the  only  thing  that  kept  her  self-respect  from 
collapsing.  Slender  though  it  was,  it  was  real. 

There  was  a  tap  at  the  door,  which  interrupted  her 
thoughts.  Mabie  answered  it  alertly. 

"  Oh,  it  is  you,  Bahrdt  !  I'm  precious  glad.  I've  just 
been  wanting  a  severe  and  uncomfortable  critic  to  tell 
me  what's  the  matter  with  this  '  Spartan  '  Boy  of  mine.  It 
started  off  well,  but,  confound  it,  I'm  on  the  verge  of  hat 
ing  it  now.  Something  is  wrong,  and  I  can't  help  it." 

Bahrdt  had  come  into  the  room  and  submitted  to  being 
led  to  a  stand  before  the  picture.  He  nodded  to  Joyce, 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  13 

and  a  whimsical  smile  of  intelligence  curved  his  lips  at 
Mabie's  concluding  confession,  but  it  was  characteristic 
of  him  that  he  should  bend  his  attention  upon  the  picture 
without  waste  of  preliminary  words.  He  could  speak 
when  there  was  need,  but  there  was  meaning  in  his  silence 
as  well. 

There  were  people  to  whom  Karl  Bahrdt  was  simply  a 
newspaper  man,  with  rather  a  scathing  pen  and  an  aggres 
sive  independence,  and  a  habit,  sometimes  amusing, 
sometimes  annoying,  of  going  below  the  surface  of  mat 
ters  that  other  people  were  content  to  take  at  their  cur 
rent  value.  He  was  forced  to  keep  this  tendency  under 
check  in  his  professional  work,  for  the  papers  which  gave 
him  assignments  and  accepted  his  space-writing  did  not 
care  to  print  anything  that  would  startle  a  good,  conserv 
ative  constituency.  But  he  was  a  valuable  man,  for  all 
that,  with  unusual  stores  of  abstruse  information,  and 
when  he  could  be  induced  to  twice-water  his  ideas  the 
result  would  be  a  stimulating  article  that  gave  tone  to  the 
morning  paper  and  was  worth  paying  for.  The  little 
paper,  "  Justice,"  was  his  dissipation.  He  had  established 
it  himself  and  carried  it  on  for  the  pleasure  of  being  able 
to  express  himself  freely  and  in  his  own  way;  and  for  the 
sake  of  its  monthly  opportunity  he  was  content  to  write 
reports  of  conventions  and  "  features  "  and  reviews  for 
the  big  dailies  of  the  city.  "  Justice,"  had  come  to  be 
looked  upon  in  some  quarters  as  a  "  labor  organ,"  and  its 
sentiments  were  quoted  as  authority  by  many  an  exponent 
of  the  doctrine  of  unionism,  but  Bahrdt  himself  was  not 
in  the  Councils  of  Labor.  Overtures  to  bring  him  in  had 
not  been  lacking,  but  he  did  not  easily  submit  to  manage 
ment.  He  was  a  free  lance,  by  instinct  and  habit.  So 
long  as  he  might  be  allowed  to  discourse  of  the  Rights  of 
Man,  and  keep  to  the  philosophical  and  economic  bearing 
of  the  question,  he  was  ready  to  fight  to  the  last  gasp  for 


14  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

that  portion  of  humanity  which  he  beheld  oppressed  by 
fate  or  custom,  but  when  it  came  to  organizing  him  or  his 
speeches  he  broke  away.  He  would  not  trim  his  opinions 
to  fit  a  machine,  even  if  the  machine  bore  the  same  motto 
that  his  own  pennant  floated.  So  while  the  many,  who 
take  their  views  of  life  with  as  little  revision  as  their 
fashions,  called  him  a  communist  and  would  hardly  give 
him  credit  for  the  ordinary  Christian  virtues  because  he 
was  understood  vaguely  to  be  a  leader  of  heterodox  move 
ments  to  subvert  the  existing  order  of  things  in  general, 
the  leaders  who  represented  the  Federation  of  Labor 
and  other  organized  leagues  of  workingmen  were  care 
ful  to  make  it  clear  that  Bahrdt  spoke  for  himself 
alone. 

But  whatever  he  had  accomplished,  it  was  impossi 
ble  to  be  with  him  long  without  feeling  that  the  man 
transcended  his  performance,  and  without  wondering 
what  the  occasion  was  to  be  that  would  measure  his 
strength.  He  was  at  this  time  of  less  than  middle  age, 
though  one  would  hardly  have  stopped  to  calculate  his 
years,  unless  to  remark  how  poor  a  standard  of  measure 
they  are.  His  face  was  sensitive,  though  its  responsive 
ness  was  more  shown  in  the  readiness  with  which  it 
expressed  his  own  waves  of  feeling  than  in  the  yieldings 
of  sympathy.  His  dark  blue  eyes,  though  luminous  on 
occasion,  were  generally  sombre  in  effect.  The  tenant 
behind  saw  more  injustice  in  the  world  than  altruism, 
more  reason  for  protest  and  fighting  than  for  compla 
cency.  An  ineffectual  protest  and  a  losing  fight,  he 
would  have  said  himself  first  of  all  ;  nevertheless  he  was 
bound  to  make  it.  It  was  ordained,  his  shadowy  eyes 
affirmed  ;  and  equally  was  it  ordained  that  he  should  suf 
fer  in  the  struggle,  his  lips  might  have  declared  to  one 
who  could  read  their  lines. 

Mabie  watched  him  while  he  bent  his  scrutiny  upon  the 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  I  5 

picture.  As  an  artist  he  invited  criticism,  but  as  a  man 
he  always  shivered  under  it. 

"  Well  ? "  he  queried  at  last,  unable  to  wait  longer  for 
the  verdict. 

"  It  is  bad  art,  because  it  is  bad  morals,"  Bahrdt  said 
abruptly.  "  He  was  a  thief,  that  'Spartan  Boy'  of  yours, 
and  that  is  a  bad  back-ground  to  set  off  courage." 

"  Fiddledeedee  !  "  cried  Mabie,  with  indignant  aston 
ishment.  "You  are  a  regular  Puritan  when  you  get  on 
that  tack,  Karl." 

"  That  is  my  opinion,  whatever  it  may  be  worth.  Any 
system  that  admits  of  dishonesty  without  condemning  it, 
whether  it  be  in  art  or  in  government,  is  bad,  and  the 
sooner  it  is  crushed  into  oblivion  the  better." 

He  spoke  with  an  ease  and  accuracy  that  would  shame 
many  to  the  language  born,  yet  with  a  distinctly  German 
intonation.  It  consisted  more  in  the  lingering  tones  and 
shaded  articulation  than  in  any  definable  violation  of 
rules.  Rarely  it  was  emphasized  by  a  misplaced  accent 
or  a  translated  idiom.  But  it  set  him  apart  in  some  way, 
and  gave  a  tinge  of  foreignness  to  his  character,  though 
he  would  have  tolerated  an  acknowledgment  of  this  but 
impatiently. 

"  I  want  to  see  you  a  moment,  Tom,"  he  added. 

The  artist  was  regarding  his  picture  with  compassion 
ate  indignation,  but  his  was  a  forgiving  spirit. 

"  Come  to  my  room.  Joyce  will  be  glad  to  be  rid  of 
us,"  he  said  promptly,  and  he  turned  to  smile  at  his 
daughter  as  he  spoke. 

Bahrdt  turned  toward  her,  too,  but  he  did  not  smile. 
Instead,  something  like  a  look  of  pity  deepened  ifi  his 
eyes  as  he  followed  his  friend  to  the  adjoining  room. 


II. 

"  Have  a  cigar  ? "  asked  Mabie  when  the  two  men  were 
alone. 

Bahrdt  declined  with  a  gesture,  and  instead  of  taking 
the  easy  chair  which  the  artist  pushed  forward  he  crossed 
the  room  with  evident  embarrassment  and  stood  leaning 
his  shoulder  against  the  window  casement. 

"Well?"  said  Mabie  genially. 

Bahrdt  lifted  his  eyes  for  a  sharp  look,  and  then  he 
dropped  them. 

"  You  may  think  I  am  unnecessarily  meddlesome,"  he 
said  in  a  constrained  voice,  "  but  you  won't  need  to  give 
me  more  than  one  hint  to  stop.  In  my  hunt  for  news  for 
the  papers  I  am  all  the  time  running  across  other  matters, 
and  when  a  friend  is  concerned  I  can't  entirely  ignore  it." 

Mabie  had  taken  his  cigar  from  his  lips  and  was  staring 
at  -the  speaker  with  a  startled  look.  His  almond  eyes 
contracted  and  then  widened  suddenly  and  his  sensitive 
lips  quivered  apart  for  a  moment  but  he  made  no  motion 
to  speak. 

"  It  is  about  Vroom  &  Co.  They  have  ordered  suit. 
I  got  it  from  their  attorney." 

"  Vroom  &  Co  ?  Vroom  ? "  Mabie  repeated  with  a 
bewildered  air.  "  What  do  they  know  ? " 

"Know?" 

"  You  mean  the  furniture  men  ?  " 

"  Yes.     Haven't  they  an  account  against  you  ?  " 

"  To  be  sure."  Mabie  laughed  and  restored  his  cigar 
to  his  lips.  "  And  they  are  going  to  sue  me  for  it,  you 
say.  Is  that  it  ? " 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  17 

"  Unless  the  bill  is  settled  at  once." 

"  I  begin  to  catch  your  drift.  Why  were  you  so  myste 
rious  about  it  ? " 

"  I  wasn't  mysterious,"  retorted  Bahrdt  with  a  fast- 
growing  impatience.  When  a  man  undertakes  a  disagree 
able  office  for  a  friend  he  wants  at  least  to  have  the 
satisfaction  of  seeing  his  friend  as  uncomfortable  as  him 
self,  and  Mabie  was  most  unsympathetically  at  ease.  "  I 
thought  I  might  possibly  be  of  some  assistance,  but  if  it 
is  a  mistake " 

"  Oh,  no,  no  mistake  about  it.  But  when  you  began  in 
that  dark  manner  about  having  found  me  out " 

"  I  didn't  say  anything  of  the  sort." 

" — I  didn't  know  what  you  might  have  discovered,  and 
was  waiting  in  a  cold  sweat  to  learn  whether  I  was  to  be 
charged  with  murder  or  with  having  stolen  my  last  joke 
from  Hudibras.  But  suits, — Lord,  I'm  used  to  them." 

"  I'm  sorry  to  have  made  myself  a  nuisance ' 

"  Now,  don't  be  offish.  I'm  glad  enough  to  have  you 
here  to  talk  the  matter  over.  It  was  only  that  I  didn't 
understand  you  at  first."  He  began  rummaging  among 
the  numerous  odds  and  ends  upon  his  table.  "  They  sent 
me  a  letter  about  that  account  the  other  day, — I  had  it 
here  somewhere,  but  I  can  never  tell  where  the  mischief 
my_  things  go  to.  Never  mind.  It  was  the  regulation 
thing.  They  wanted  me  to  call  and  settle.  I  didn't  see 
any  use  in  answering  when  I  didn't  have  anything  to  set 
tle  with.  I  never  was  so  hard  up  in  my  life,  and  I've  had 
more  experience  in  that  direction  than  most  people." 

"  Can  I  do  any  good  by  seeing  them  for  you  ? " 

"  I'm  afraid  not,  dear  boy.  You  couldn't  bring  yourself 
to  swear,  with  your  hand  on  the  ledger,  that  I  will  pay 
within  thirty  days.  If  you  did,  you  would  betray  that 
you  didn't  believe  it  yourself.  You  haven't  had  practice 
enough  to  lie  with  a  convincing  air." 


1 8  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"  I'm  afraid  I  couldn't  say,  either,  that  you  have  lost 
any  sleep  over  the  matter." 

"  Why  should  I  ?  If  you  are  condemned  to  starve,  you 
don't  gain  anything  by  fretting  yourself  to  death  at  the 
prospect." 

"  What  is  the  amount  ?  " 

"  Vroom's  bill  ?  I  don't  remember  exactly.  Six  or 
seven  hundred.  He  fitted  up  these  rooms  for  me  when 
Joyce  was  coming  home,  and  my  paternal  pride  wrecked 
me.  Then  you  know  the  way  these  fellows  have  when 
they  want  to  sell.  Everything  your  own  way  and  pay 
when  you  like,  and,  bless  you,  you  can't  say  anything  that 
they  won't  smile  at  and  agree  to.  But  when  the  bill 
comes  due  you  find  that  the  house  doesn't  have  enough 
men  of  the  smiling  sort  to  go  around,  so  it  has  pooled 
them  in  the  sales  department  and  left  the  collections  in 
the  hands  of  the  other  variety  who  make  you  wish  you 
were  dead, — or  that  they  were." 

"  Or,  better  still,  that  they  had  been  paid." 

"  Oh,  of  course.  But  that's  out  of  the  question.  They 
may  sue  if  they  like.  They  will  get  judgment  against  me 
and  that  is  all  they  will  get.  There  are  more  judgments 
hanging  over  me  now  than  I  can  ever  pay,  unless  some 
one  will  give  me  a  commission  to  paint  a  whole  art  gal 
lery  and  no  questions  asked." 

There  was  nothing  in  this  statement  to  surprise  Bahrdt, 
for  Tom  Garner's  financial  condition  was  too  well  known 
to  excite  comment.  It  was  a  standing  puzzle  to  his 
friends  how  a  man  who  so  notoriously  avoided  the  pay 
ment  of  his  debts  could  manage  to  get  pretty  much  what 
he  wanted, — as  he  did.  He  used  the  money  he  did  spend 
to  advantage,  and  it  must  be  said  that  he  spent  generously. 
But  Bahrdt  cared  too  much  to  laugh  at  it,  as  others  did. 

"  Do  you  mean  that  there  are  other  and  older  debts 
still  unsettled  ?  "  he  asked. 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  19 

"  Other  debts  ?  You  tempt  me  to  drop  into  slang.  I 
don't  even  know  how  many,  so  how  can  I  be  expected  to 
pay  them  ?  When  a  man's  finances  run  short  he  must 
live  by  financiering." 

"  Such  financiering  does  not  do  you  credit,  Tom,"  said 
Bahrdt  quickly. 

Mabie's  cheek  flushed  slowly  and  his  eye  sought  the 
floor,  but  he  answered  with  great  composure  : 

"  It  is  very  easy  for  you  to  lay  down  your  little  moral 
maxims  and  win  the  applause  of  all  well-regulated  minds. 
But  what  should  I  have  done  ?  Tell  me,  dabbler  that  you 
are  in  sociology  and  economics.  The  survival  of  the  fit 
test, — that  is  the  phrase  people  conjure  with  nowadays. 
Now  listen." 

He  tossed  away  his  cigar,  pushed  his  chair  back,  and 
faced  Bahrdt  with  a  nervous  energy  in  voice  and  manner 
that  was  unusual  with  him. 

"  When  I  took  my  life  into  my  own  hands  and  an 
nounced  that  I  was  going  to  be  an  artist,  my  family 
threw  me  over.  It  wasn't  a  prosperous  calling, — wasn't 
even  wholly  respectable,  in  their  eyes.  Well,  it  was  my 
life,  and  there  are  some  matters  in  which  a  man  has  no 
choice.  I  have  never  been  sorry  that  I  persisted,  but  the 
result  was  that  I  half  starved  the  first  five  years.  If  I 
had  been  a  great  artist,  of  course  I  could  have  com 
manded  fortune.  That  is  what  one  likes  to  dream  of. 
But  I  wasn't.  I  was  only  enough  of  an  artist  to  make  it 
impossible  for  me  to  live  in  any  other  way  and  not  enough 
of  one  to  ensure  my  living  at  all  in  that  way.  I  was  a 
weakling.  Your  law  of  survival  would  condemn  me  to  be 
swept  out  as  unfit,  but  I  objected.  If  my  lightness  could 
save  me,  in  default  of  strength,  who  shall  say  I  was  not 
justified  in  using  it  ?  If  I  prove  my  ability  to  survive, 
you  must  admit  my  right.  So  I  have  carried  an  easy 
mind  and  light  luggage,  and  have  preyed  upon  my  fellow 


20  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

beings  no  more  than  was  necessary  to  keep  myself  from 
going  under  in  the  struggle.  I  don't  mean  by  that  that  I 
have  lived  by  sharp  practice,  either,  though  probably  I 
have  been  kept  from  it  more  by  an  instinctive  shrinking 
from  such  things  than  from  any  good  reason  you  could 
urge  against  them.  I've  had  to  pit  my  opinion  against 
the  world's  pretty  steadily.  It  has  got  even  with  me, 
perhaps,  for  though  it  may  be  all  wrong  it  has  brute 
strength  on  its  side.  Oh,  I  know  what  it  says  of  me.  '  A 
broken-winged  bird,'  'a.  ne'er-do-weel,'  'a  failure.'  Of 
late  years  it  has  been  oftenest  '  A  dead-beat.'  " 

He  turned  abruptly  and  walked  to  the  window,  and 
stood  looking  out  with  his  head  thrown  proudly  back  to 
deny  a  quick  heave  of  the  shoulders.  Bahrdt  watched 
him  with  an  awkward  feeling  of  compassion. 

"  I  dropped  the  last  part  of  my  name,"  the  artist  con 
tinued  after  a  moment,  with  a  recovery  of  his  mocking 
manner,  "  in  order  that  I  might  not  drag  the  ancestral 
Thomas  Mabie  through  the  mire.  I  have  been  Tom  Gar 
ner  to  my  friends  as  well  as  to  the  public,  and  there  are 
few  people  who  know  that  I  don't  sign  it  to  my  legal  doc 
uments.  I  suppose  I  had  some  idiotic  notion  that  under 
this  modest  shield  I  would  achieve  fame  and  fortune  and 
make  my  family  rather  proud  of  explaining  the  relation 
ship.  As  for  fame, — well,  I  make  pictures  to  fit  the 
ready-made  jokes  of  the  '  Humorist.'  That  ought  to  sat 
isfy  any  man's  ambition.  The  fortune  is  a  little  hazy  to 
be  sure,  and  the  family  has  taken  me  at  my  word  very 
energetically  and  let  me  disappear.  A  fruitful  life,  isn't 
it  ?  And  a  hopeful  one  !  " 

"  There  is  Joyce,"  suggested  Bahrdt. 

Mabie  threw  himself  down  by  the  table  again,  sat  silent 
a  moment,  and  then  dropped  his  head  upon  his  arms. 
Bahrdt  waited  with  a  heavy  frown  between  his  eyes  and 
back  of  it  a  pity  which  he  often  gave  to  classes  but  sel- 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  21 

dom  to  individuals.  How  these  helpless  human  fledg 
lings  did  bruise  and  maim  themselves  !  Was  it  their 
fault  ?  Life  was  to  blame,  and  the  scheme  of  things 
which  involved  living.  It  was  only  pointing  the  bitter 
thought  that  pressed  always  closest  to  his  heart, — the 
wreckage  of  human  lives  and  the  pity  of  it.  He  was 
thinking  less  of  Mabie,  the  one  man  before  him,  than  of 
all  the  men  forced  by  the  world's  methods  to  drop  a 
shamed  head  and  confess  themselves  failures.  Perhaps 
the  man  who  dreamed  the  story  of  Prometheus  knew  the 
feeling  as  well  as  any. 

But  when  he  spoke  it  was  the  common-sense  of  the 
street  that  found  expression. 

"  About  this  matter  of  Vroom's.  Can't  you  get  them  to 
take  back  the  things  ?  I  don't  suppose  you  are  anxious  to 
be  sued,  however  familiar  the  operation  may  be,  and  if  they 
understand  the  situation  they  will  probably  be  willing  to 
settle  by  getting  back  their  goods  and  saving  court  costs." 

"  I  suppose  that  is  sensible  and  practical.  It  is  too 
unpleasant  not  to  be." 

"  Then  what  will  you  do  next  ?  " 

"  Buy  a  ticket  at  the  corner  drug-store  for  the  land 
where  there  is  no  dunning  or  getting  in  debt." 

"  That  is  nonsense,  you  know." 

"  I  don't  know  what  I  may  do.  That  is  the  charac 
teristic  of  my  warfare.  I  never  make  plans,  so  I  never 
run  the  risk  of  having  them  upset.  The  other  people 
may  have  the  fun  of  planning." 

"  You  can  hardly  involve  your  daughter  in  that  sort  of 
a  campaign." 

Tom  Garner  frowned  and  gave  his  "chair  an  impatient 
jerk.  Then  his  face  cleared  suddenly. 

"Oh,  she  is  going  away.  I  forgot  that,  in  your  con 
founded  news.  She  is  going  to  spend  the  summer  with 
an  old  school-friend." 


22  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"So  much  the  better.  Then  you  will  have  a  chance  to 
get  matters  into  some  sort  of  order  before  she  comes 
back." 

"  Yes."  Tom  Garner  was  staring  absently  into  space. 
"  Come  to  think  of  it,  I  don't  see  that  it  will  be  necessary 
to  tell  her  anything  about  this  complication.  Can't  you 
see  those  people  for  me  and  get  them  to  keep  quiet  until 
she  is  off  ?  It  won't  do  any  good  for  her  to  know,  and  it 
will  be  particularly  unpleasant." 

Bahrdt's  eyebrows  contracted. 

"  Better  tell  her,"  he  said  sharply.  "  She  isn't  the  sort 
of  girl  that  can  be  kept  in  ignorance,  so  you  might  as  well 
accept  the  situation  and  tell  the  truth.  Under  compul 
sion,  you  know." 

"  Well,"  said  Mabie  acquiescingly.  He  seemed  entirely 
oblivious  of  the  sting  in  Bahrdt's  words,  but  as  Bahrdt's 
words  were  rather  apt  to  carry  a  sting  perhaps  the  force 
of  it  was  lost.  "  I  wonder  by  the  way  whether  I  have 
money  enough  to  get  her  off." 

He  emptied  his  purse  upon  the  table  and  the  coins  fell 
in  a  little  jingling  heap  of  gold  and  silver. 

"  Pretty,  isn't  it  ? "  he  said,  leaning  back  to  look  at  it 
quizzically.  "  A  beautiful  witch  that  blinds  men's  eyes 
with  the  gleam  of  her  golden  hair  and  leads  them  over 
bogs  and  quicksands  and  through  Dismal  Swamps  where 
snakes  and  bats  and  ghosts  do  dwell.  You  are  all  under 
her  thrall, — you,  Karl,  as  much  as  any  of  them." 

"  I  ?  "  echoed  Bahrdt  with  indignant  surprise.  "  I  have 
made  it  the  work  of  my  life  to  denounce  capital." 

"  Exactly,  because  you  conceive  her  to  be  a  very  im 
portant  personage.  If  she  cannot  make  you  love  her,  she 
will  sting  you  into  hating  her,  but  in  one  way  or  another 
she  will  make  you  feel  her  power.  While  for  me,  Beauty 
is  my  mistress,  and  I  wear  no  other  livery.  Our  golden 
goddess  may  hurl  her  thunderbolts, — and,  to  do  her  jus- 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  2$ 

tice,  she  has  a  fairly  good  aim, — but  it  is  one  of  the  rules 
of  the  game  that  her  shafts  have  power  to  overthrow  only 
her  own  devotees." 

"  Yet  you  have  not  escaped  being  overthrown." 

Mabie  lifted  his  shoulders  the  merest  trifle. 

"  Who  thinks  so  ?  You,  and  the  majority.  Who  thinks 
not  ?  I.  Who  knows  best  ?  I'm  modest,  so  I  won't 
say."  He  ran  the  money  smilingly  through  his  fingers 
till  he  came  to  the  last  coin,  when  he  frowned. 

"  There  isn't  enough.     There  never  is  enough." 

"  Sell  your  '  Spartan  Boy.'  " 

"Will  you  find  me  a  purchaser?" 

"  Has  that  dealer, — Hamon,  isn't  that  his  name  ? — has 
he  seen  it  ?" 

Mabie  pushed  back  his  chair  suddenly  and  violently. 

"  No." 

"  I  thought  he  handled  such  things  for  you." 

"  He  doesn't." 

Bahrdt  looked  surprised  and  expectant,  but  no  explana 
tion  was  forthcoming.  It  went  through  his  mind  that 
Mabie  was  probably  already  in  Hamon's  debt  and  that 
consequently  their  relations  were  strained.  "Perhaps  I 
can  find  a  man  who  will  take  it,"  he  said.  "  I  have  a 
good  friend,  just  come  to  town.  He  shall  see  it." 

"  You  are  not  afraid  that  its  bad  moral  standard " 

Bahrdt  smiled  and  shook  his  head. 

"  Paul  will  never  perceive  it." 

"  Then  there  is  some  chance  that  he  may  understand 
art.  Come,  let's  go  and  tell  Joyce  and  have  it  over 
with." 

He  rose  as  he  spoke,  swept  the  money  back  into  his 
purse,  and  after  an  almost  imperceptible  pause,  led  the 
way  to  the  outer  room.  As  Bahrdt  followed  he  wondered 
whether  it  was  so  clear,  after  all,  that  the  Spartan  Boy 
deserved  no  credit  for  his  courage  because  the  laws  of 


24  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

other  nations  named  him  a  thief.  His  own  protected  him, 
and  at  least  he  was  true  to  them. 

There  was  a  delicate  aloofness  about  Joyce  Mabie  that 
made  people  instinctively  pause  and  consider  what  wares 
they  were  about  to  offer  her.  This  characteristic  struck 
Bahrdt  sharply,  when,  upon  their  entrance,  she  lifted  an 
absent,  luminous  look  to  greet  them.  It  had  nothing  in 
common  with  that  story  of  weak  subterfuge  and  shifty 
methods.  He  turned  abruptly  to  Mabie. 

"  Shall  I  see  them  for  you  and  make  that  proposition 
for  settlement  ? " 

"  I  wish  you  would.     Thanks,  old  fellow." 

"  I'll  drop  in  again  as  soon  as  possible  and  report." 

Then  he  departed  hastily  and  tramped  impatiently 
down  the  stairs  instead  of  waiting  for  the  elevator. 

"  And  yet  she  will  have  to  know,"  he  said  to  himself  de 
fiantly.  "  That  is  what  life  is,  for  the  majority, — mean 
and  poor  and  a  thing  to  blush  for.  If  she  is  of  finer  sort 
she  must  use  her  fineness  to  help  the  average.  She  has 
no  right  to  remain  ignorant." 

Yet  it  all  annoyed  him  so  deeply  that  he  was  particu 
larly  fierce  when  he  came  to  interview  Vroom's  attorney, 
and  in  consequence  he  practically  had  matters  his  own 
way  about  the  settlement. 


III. 

IT  suddenly  came  over  Tom  Garner,  when  he  was  left 
alone  with  Joyce,  what  an  extremely  disagreeable  feature 
of  a  disagreeable  affair  the  telling  her  was  going  to  be.  It 
would  be  expecting  too  much  to  hope  that  she  might  dis 
approve  and  hide  the  expression  of  that  fact.  He  had 
come  to  know  her  too  well,  this  year  they  had  lived  to 
gether,  to  count  upon  that.  She  was  too  crude,  he  said 
to  himself  impatiently,  and  he  felt  it  rather  a  hardship 
that  he  should  have  to  meet  that  particular  and  most  un 
pardonable  fault  in  a  daughter.  Was  his  Nemesis  going 
to  overtake  him  in  this  way  ?  He  had  always  had  a 
lurking  suspicion  that  somehow  or  other  the  offended  pro 
prieties  whom  he  had  defied  would  try  to  get  even  with 
him.  If  they  armed  the  hand  of  his  own  daughter  against 
him,  it  would  be  particularly  unpleasant.  He  was  getting 
too  old  to  keep  up  the  gay  fight,  he  said  to  himself,  and 
sighed  a  little. 

That  made  Joyce  look  up,  inquiringly. 

"  What  did  you  think  of  Karl's  criticism  ?"  he  asked, 
putting  off  the  inevitable  subject  for  another  minute. 

"  It  was  what  might  be  expected,"  she  said  lightly. 
"  You  don't  mind  that,  surely  ?  " 

"  No,"  he  said  slowly.  "  No."  He  came  and  sat  down 
near  her  and  absently  turned  the  pages  of  the  magazine 
she  had  laid  down.  "  I  told  Karl  you  were  going  off  on  a 
visit  to  Mrs.  Hamill." 

"And  I  have  just  made  up  my  mind  not  to  go  !  " 

"  I  thought  you  wanted  to  go." 


26  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY, 

"  And  I  thought  you  didn't  want  me  to." 

They  looked  at  each  other  and  laughed. 

"  It  is  a  dangerous  thing  to  be  too  considerate  of  other 
people,"  he  said  with  a  quick  recovery  of  his  gay  temper. 
"  We  shall  be  defeating  each  other's  pet  projects  with  the 
best  intentions  in  the  world.  We  might  as  well  be  selfish 
and  comfortable.  You're  fond  of  Mrs.  Hamill,  aren't 
you  ?  " 

"  Of  course.  We  were  the  closest  of  friends  all  the 
time  she  was  at  the  school." 

"  And  you  made  vows  that  you'd  e'er  be  true,  and  then 
she  basely  went  and  married  a  mere  man." 

"  Oh,  I  didn't  mind,  because  the  man  was  Professor 
Hamill,  and  we  girls  all  adored  him  because  he  was  so 
shy  and  so  afraid  of  us.  And  then  Dru  likes  him,  which 
is  greatly  in  his  favor." 

"  Well,  you'd  better  go." 

"  And  leave  you  here  alone  ? " 

"  Oh,  don't  flatter  yourself  that  you  are  so  indispensa 
ble  to  my  existence,  young  woman.  I'll  manage  to  worry 
along  somehow." 

"  You  say  that  because  you  don't  want  me  to  feel  bound 
to  stay,  but  when  I  first  told  you  about  her  invitation  you 
didn't  like  it.  You  said  you'd  miss  me,  which  so  flattered 
me  that  I've  written  Dru  I  can't  come." 

"  Have  you  sent  the  letter  ? " 

"Not  yet.  But  really  I  shall  be  happier  here  than  to 
think  of  you  disconsolately  mourning  your  housekeeper, 
— for  even  though  she  is  a  poor  thing,  she's  your  own." 

"  That  wasn't  really  the  reason  I  demurred  to  your 
going,"  he  said  with  something  of  an  effort.  Bahrdt's 
advice  to  tell  the  truth  under  compulsion  had  recurred  to 
him  as  stray  ideas  do.  Perhaps  it  might  be  well  to  tell 
— part  of  the  truth!  "It  was  only  because  I  have  some 
associations  with  Hereward  that  I  do  not  care  to  have 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  2J 

revived,  and  I  would  have  wished  that  your  friend  lived 
somewhere  else." 

"  Were  you  ever  there  ?     I  didn't  know  it." 

"  It  was  long  ago." 

"  Was  mamma  there  too  ?  " 

His  look  wavered  as  he  hastily  considered  whether  to 
add  a  little  more  of  the  truth  or  whether  it  would  be  dan 
gerous  to  concede  another  fact. 

"  Oh,  it  was  when  I  was  a  young  man.  I  was  ambitious 
then,  and — there  were  some  people  there  who  didn't 
share  my  confidence.  They  may  be  there  still,  and  that 
was  why  I  didn't  care  to  have  you  go  back  just  yet.  If 
things  had  turned  out  as  I  once  believed  they  would, — 
but  I  don't  want  to  give  them  a  chance  to  crow  over  their 
triumph." 

"Are  the  people  particularly  Puritanical  in  Hereward?" 

"  They  didn't  approve  of  me.  Probably  they  were  right. 
And  probably  I  have  been  forgotten,  anyhow.  Unless 
there  is  some  need  to  drag  me  in  and  apologize  for  me, 
don't  say  that  you  know  anything  about  a  spendthrift 
artist  named  Tom  Garner.  By  the  way,  that  was  the 
only  name  under  which  I  was  known  in  those  days,  so 
very  likely  no  one  will  think  of  connecting  Miss  Mabie 
with  the  young  scapegrace  who  upset  some  of  their  ideas 
twenty-two  years  ago.  Well,  I  wish  you  could  be  prouder 
of  owning  me,  Joyce." 

He  flung  down  the  magazine  with  his  quick  impatience 
and  went  back  to  his  easel  with  a  frown  between  his  eyes. 
Joyce  had  leaned  back,  with  her  hands  clasped  in  her  lap 
and  her  eyes  fixed  rather  disconsolately  on  the  tree-tops 
that  waved  across  the  window-space.  She  did  not  say 
anything  in  answer  to  his  last  words,  because  it  did  not 
occur  to  her  that  he  was  waiting  for  her  protestations. 
But  he  glanced  askance  at  her  and  her  irresponsive  face 
irritated  him.  No  matter  if  it  was  true  and  if  he  said  it 


28  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

himself,  it  was  her  place  to  believe  in  him,  he  thought. 
He  of  all  men  should  not  have  a  daughter  who  was  clear 
sighted  rather  than  femininely  blind  and  loving  after  the 
traditions.  He  felt  a  sudden  hardening  toward  her,  and 
it  was  easier  to  say  what  he  had  to. 

"  While  you  are  gone,  I  shall  try  to  settle  with  Vroom 
about  this  furniture  bill.  He  will  take  the  things  back 
and  then  we  can  go  somewhere  else  in  the  fall  and  be  as 
uncomfortable  and  virtuous  as  you  please." 

She  turned  toward  him  quickly  with  a  sudden  flushing 
of  tenderness  over  her  face  that  annoyed  him  still  more, 
because  it  was  so  misplaced.  She  even  sprang  up  and 
came  to  put  her  arm  through  his,  with  a  confiding  gesture 
that  would  have  been  charming  if  something  else  had  won 
it  from  her. 

"  Will  you  ?  Oh,  I  am  glad.  The  dear  old  shabby 
studios  that  you  used  to  take  me  to  when  I  came  here  on 
my  vacations  were  so  charming,  papa.  Do  you  know,  I 
never  have  been  really  happy  here,  thinking  that  the 
things  weren't  paid  for  and  that  we  couldn't  pay  for 
them  ? " 

"You  have  shown  it  plainly  enough." 

"  Have  I  been  tiresome  ? "  she  asked  remorsefully. 
"  Well,  I  had  it  on  my  mind  that  it  was  all  on  account  of 
me  you  did  it, — and  as  I  am  not  much  of  a  factor  in  the 
income  problem,  just  yet,  it  worried  me  to  feel  that  1 
should  figure  so  largely  in  the  outlay.  It  was  a  selfish 
feeling,  after  all  !  But  now  you  shall  see  how  really 
grown-up  and  sensible  I  am  going  to  be.  And  helpful  ! 
My  work  for  Mr.  Bahrdt  doesn't  amount  to  very  much  of 
course, — why  do  you  always  smile  that  way  about  it,  as 
though  it  were  child's  play  ?  It  isn't  !  And  perhaps  some 
day  I  shall  blossom  into  a  full-fledged  journalist — 

"Your  figures  of  speech  would  entitle  you  to  a  position 
at  once." 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  29 

She  pinched  his  arm. 

"  But  won't  it  be  a  relief  to  you  to  have  this  horrid  debt 
cleared  away  ?  Then  we  shall  be  square  with  the  world." 

"Oh,  shall  we  ?" 

"  Shan't  we  ?  "  she  asked  with  a  startled  look.  "  Are 
there  any  more  debts  ? " 

"  You  might  as  well  understand  the  situation,"  he  said 
irritably.  "  Sit  down,  then,  and  listen  to  the  stupidest  of 
stories." 

They  sat  down  and  he  went  over  the  ground,  while  she 
listened  and  tried  to  understand.  The  more  he  explained, 
the  more  she  doubted  her  own  powers  of  comprehension, 
but  for  that,  unfortunately,  there  was  no  good  reason. 

As  a  child  she  had  naturally  accepted  the  condition  of 
things  in  which  she  found  herself  without  question  or  con 
sideration.  She  remembered,  first  of  all,  spending  her 
vacations  in  the  boarding-school,  when  the  other  girls 
went  home.  That  was  because  her  mother  had  died  long 
ago.  It  was  a  tearful  and  lonesome  season,  but  she  bore 
up  on  the  promise  that  when  she  grew  older  she  should 
spend  those  vacations  with  her  father.  If  there  had  been 
any  way  of  cheating  time  out  of  a  year  or  two,  it  is  doubt 
ful  whether  her  moral  nature  would  have  been  able  to 
withstand  the  temptation  at  that  age.  But  she  reached 
the  goal  at  last  by  the  regular  route,  and  after  her  tenth 
birthday  she  spent  all  the  holidays  in  the  calendar,  and 
some  not  there  set  down,  with  the  most  delightful  father 
in  the  world.  On  that  idea  of  him  her  early  theory  of 
life  was  founded.  The  first  addition  to  it  was  the  corre 
sponding  idea  that  life,  outside  of  a  school-room,  was  made 
up  of  the  most  fascinating  variety.  Sometimes  the  chance 
meant  a  room  in  the  best  hotel,  with  an  avalanche  of 
finery  and  bonbons,  and  daily  drives  in  a  pony-cart  that 
it  broke  her  heart  to  part  with  when  the  tragic  school- 
season  returned.  The  next  time  it  might  be  an  extern- 


3O  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

porized  bed  behind  a  screen  in  the  corner  of  a  shabby 
studio,  where  artists  came  to  smoke  with  her  father,  and 
to  make  pictures  of  her  as  a  water  nixie  with  a  curious, 
elusive  jubilance  in  her  quaint  little  face,  or  as  a  babe  in 
the  wood,  with  a  look  of  questioning  wonder  that  caught 
your  heart  with  a  sudden  pity.  It  was  all  equally  good 
fun,  for  she  had  enough  of  her  father's  spirit  to  think 
more  of  the  flowers  of  life  than  of  the  soil  from  which  they 
grew,  and  the  accidents  of  fortune  mattered  little  so  long 
as  she  shared  them  with  him  and  was  free  to  dream  after 
her  own  sweet  will.  When,  as  sometimes  happened,  he 
playfully  denied  some  extravagant  request  upon  the  plea 
that  he  could  not  afford  it,  she  would  acquiesce  with  a 
serious  joy  in  sharing  a  burden  with  him  that  was  very 
sweet  and  amusing.  She  had  never  got  beyond  that 
point  in  knowledge  of  her  father's  financial  relations  with 
the  world  until  the  school-days  ended  and  she  came  to 
live  with  him.  It  wasn't  a  subject  he  talked  much  about, 
— or  thought  much  about,  for  that  matter.  But  when  they 
set  up  their  system  of  light  and  airy  housekeeping,  the  jar 
began.  It  must  be  confessed  that  the  experiment  of  living 
together  was  a  disappointment  to  both.  She  had  outgrown 
the  stage  of  sympathy  with  his  aimless  gayety,  and  he  re 
sented  this  fact.  She  found  herself  taking  daily  more  and 
more  of  a  critical  attitude,  and  it  was  a  more  dangerous 
attitude  for  a  young  woman  of  her  temperament  than  she 
had  any  reason  for  knowing.  It  had  not  been  helped  by 
the  influence  of  Karl  Bahrdt.  He  certainly  had  made  no 
attempt  to  influence  her,  so  far  as  that  went.  He  had 
an  inherited  contempt,  for  the  feminine  mind  and  for 
feminine  methods  which  would  have  piqued  a  coquette  to 
declare  war,  but  of  which  Joyce  was  supremely  disregard- 
ful.  She  had  found  him  established  as  her  father's 
intimate  friend,  and  whatever  else  her  coming  had  done, 
it  had  not  disturbed  that  relation.  He  still  came  and 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  31 

smoked  and  talked  while  Mabie  painted,  and  his  earnest 
ness  about  abstract  questions  and  the  rights  of  humanity, 
his  burning  denunciations  of  vested  forms  of  injustice,  the 
books  he  brought  and  the  work  he  did,  awoke  in  her  an 
enthusiasm  that  eventually  he  could  not  but  recognize 
with  leniency.  She  was  not  a  pupil  to  be  despised,  even 
if  she  was  only  a  women.  He  gave  her  books  and 
demanded  hard  reading  of  them,  which  she  gave  with  the 
eagerness  of  a  disciple.  And  when  he  discovered  that 
she  possessed  more  than  the  average  school-girl  ability  in 
composition  and  had  vague  aspirations  toward  journalism, 
he  engaged  her  to  do  some  minor  work  on  the  little 
paper,  "  Justice,"  in  which  he  fought  out  his  convictions 
and  carried  on  his  propaganda.  All  through  this  she  had 
been  growing  farther  and  farther  away  from  her  father's 
easy  view  of  life,  however.  How  far,  she  had  not  realized 
until  this  morning's  conference  revealed  it.  She  learned 
that  all  his  life  he  had  practically  disregarded  the  conven 
tionality  of  paying  for  what  he  wanted,  unless  he  couldn't 
help  himself.  She  learned  that  they  were  banked  about 
with  debts  which  no  one  tried  to  collect  because  they 
knew  it  was  useless.  To  her  mind,  sharply  strung  by  her 
recent  thought  on  the  abstract  moral  questions  of  society, 
it  was  a  startling  discovery.  Tom  Garner  told  the  story 
with  picturesque  vividness,  and  heaped  disdainful  epithets 
upon  the  clumsy  world  with  which  he  had  been  running 
a-tilt,  but  Joyce's  heart  sank  lower  and  lower,  and  as  it 
sank  her  manner  grew  chiller  and  chiller. 

He  pulled  himself  up  at  last,  with  a  frown. 

"  Well,  you  look  solemn  enough  over  it,  in  all  con 
science.  Why  don't  you  say  something  ?  " 

"It  is  so  surprising — I  hardly  understand, —  "  she  fal 
tered  with  averted  eyes. 

"  And  it  seems  rather  disgraceful  and  quite  unpardon 
able,  to  your  virtuous  judgment,  I  suppose,"  he  said  with 
a  short  laugh. 


32  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

She  sat  silent.  He  had  said  it.  It  did  seem  disgrace 
ful  and  unpardonable  to  her,  and  her  stern  young  soul 
could  measure  nothing  but  the  wrong.  Should  she  com 
promise  with  sin  by  treating  it  lightly?  She  sat  cold 
and  silent,  without  lifting  her  eyes.  Tenderness  is  mis 
takenly  considered  a  characteristic  of  youth.  There  is  no 
judge  so  severe  as  a  child,  and  a  soul  like  Joyce  Mabie's 
only  learns  tenderness  when  long  experience  of  life's  hard 
ness  has  melted  it  to  pity.  But  as  yet  she  had  no  pity  in 
her  heart  or  in  her  face,  and  Tom  Garner,  who  was  ready 
enough  to  call  himself  names  on  occasion,  rose  with  a 
cold  anger  blazing  in  his  eyes. 

"  How  long  will  it  take  you  to  pack  ?  " 

"  Not  long, — a  few  hours,"  she  answered  with  an  effort. 
She  accepted  without  further  question  his  decision  that 
she  should  go. 

"Then  there  are  the  books  and  pictures  and  things 
which  belong  to  us  unequivocally.  I  can  have  some  peo 
ple  come  and  attend  to  the  packing  and  storing,  but  I 
suppose  you  will  have  to  see  that  things  are  done  right, — 
if  it  will  not  be  troubling  you  too  much." 

"  But  you  will  want  them,"  she  said,  rousing  herself  and 
trying  to  be  natural.  "  Where  will  you  stay  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know,"  he  answered  curtly.  He  knelt  down 
to  gather  up  the  scattered  contents  of  the  portfolio  and 
would  say  nothing  further.  But  after  a  little  he  added, 
taking  up  his  hat,  "  If  you  will  give  me  Mrs.  HamilPs 
exact  address  I  will  telegraph  her  that  you  start  to-mor 
row.  Will  that  suit  you  ?  " 

"Yes,"  Joyce  said  quietly,  and  she  wrote  the  address 
on  a  card  and  handed  it  to  him  without  looking  at  him. 

But  when  he  went  out  and  she  was  left  with  this  up 
turned  world  about  her,  she  felt  most  wretchedly  de 
pressed.  It  was  all  wrong,  somehow.  It  would  have  been 
a  relief  to  throw  herself  down  and  cry,  but  she  had  a  strong 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  33 

woman's  more  than  masculine  scorn  for  that  feminine 
weakness.  If  she  could  have  talked  it  over  with  some 
one,  she  thought,  reaching  out  for  the  same  comfort  of 
dependence  in  another  form, — not  some  one  who  would 
sympathize  with  or  pet  her,  but  some  one  who  would 
understand  and  help  her  to  understand, — it  would  be 
better.  She  thought  out  all  she  would  say  to  that 
unknown  and  wise  friend  as  she  sat  on  the  edge  of  the 
bed  sorting  cuffs  and  collars  and  ribbons.  It  wasn't  her 
life,  this  gay  and  careless  and  irresponsible  life  into  which 
her  father  had  brought  her.  She  had  her  own  life  to  live 
and  it  must  deal  with  very  different  elements.  Nothing, 
she  felt,  could  fill  it  but  some  grand  ideal.  If  she  had 
happened  to  fall  in  love  as  most  girls  do  before  they  are 
twenty  (whether  they  care  to  remember  it  among  their 
experiences  or  not),  she  might  now  have  seen  things 
differently.  But  she  had  been  too  hard  a  student  to 
dabble  much  with  fancy,  and  her  cold  exterior  had  been  a 
protection  to  her.  When  Karl  Bahrdt  came,  with  his 
call  to  a  work  for  humanity,  the  emotionalism  which 
might  have  worked  off  in  the  ordinary  way  if  she  had 
ever  happened  to  take  a  girlish  fancy  for  her  music 
teacher,  had  suddenly  vivified  his  intellectual  abstractions 
and  she  had  been  lifted  into  new  channels  of  thought  and 
feeling.  There  was  an  appeal  in  his  ideal  to  the  ascetic 
side  of  her  nature, — and  there  is  more  asceticism  in  even 
the  average  young  girl  than  is  ofUn  suspected.  It  is 
chiefly  because  the  traditions  of  life  direct  her  in  a  non- 
ascetic  channel  that  she  learns  to  content  herself  with 
apples  of  Sodom. 

There  was  a  tap  at  the  outer  door  and  she  went  out  to 
find  Bahrdt  waiting,  and  a  stranger  with  him. 

"  Your  father  is  not  in  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  No,  but  he  will  be  in  soon." 

"  It  is  no  matter.     I  wished  my  friend,  Paul  Rodman, 


34  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

to  see  that  picture  of  the  '  Spartan  Boy.'  May  we  look  at 
it  ?  Miss  Mabie,  this  is  my  friend,  Mr.  Rodman." 

"  Oh,  I  am  glad  to  have  you  see  it,"  said  Joyce  quickly. 
She  went  to  the  easel  and  turned  it  a  little  toward  the 
light,  and  then  stepped  back  to  let  them  have  a  clear  view. 
If  he  would  only  like  it !  She  glanced  anxiously  at  the 
young  stranger  Bahrdt  had  named. 

He  had  doffed  the  odd,  foreign  cap  he  wore  and  Joyce 
was  struck  first  of  all  with  his  boyish  air.  His  brown 
hair  fell  back  from  his  forehead  with  a  sunny  ripple  and 
there  was  a  suggestion  of  mirthfulness  in  his  blue  eyes 
that  made  them  different  from  most  of  the  eyes  one  is  apt 
to  encounter  in  a  day's  wanderings.  The  same  hint  of 
joyousness  made  one's  gaze  linger  involuntarily  upon  his 
lips  when  he  smiled.  They  were  delicately  modeled  lips, 
noticeably  sensitive  and  fine,  and  he  kept  them  as  clean 
and  unshaded  as  a  boy's.  Perhaps  it  was  this  feature, 
together  with  the  indefinable  air  of  buoyancy  which  he 
radiated,  that  gave  him  the  peculiarly  youthful  aspect 
which  amused  his  friends  and  occasionally  embarrassed 
himself. 

He  had  merely  bowed  to  Joyce,  and  gone,  at  her  indica 
tion,  to  the  picture,  to  which  he  gave  long  and  silent 
attention.  The  likeness  to  Joyce  must  of  course  have 
been  the  first  thing  he  noticed,  but  he  did  not  betray  it 
by  any  glance  toward  her  for  verification.  Perhaps  it 
meant  nothing  to  him  as  yet. 

"  I  know  why  Mr.  Bahrdt  thought  this  picture  would 
appeal  to  me,"  he  said  suddenly,  with  a  smile  and  a  man 
ner  that  took  her  sympathy  for  granted.  "You  see,  to 
day  is  to  be  my  last  comfortable  day.  To-morrow  I  am 
to  take  under  my  cloak  a  certain  fox  which  I  have  no 
doubt  will  absorb  my  interest  quite  as  unpleasantly  as  the 
Spartan  Boy's  did  his.  I  have  just  become,  by  inherit 
ance,  the  owner  of  a  furniture  factory  up  somewhere  in 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  35 

the  country,  and  as  Mr.  Bahrdt  can  prove  in  ten  minutes 
that  all  property  is  stolen  from  people  who  never  had  it, 
the  simile  is  complete.  It  only  remains  for  me  to  buy  the 
latest  manual  on  fortitude,  and  sit  up  nights  studying 
it." 

There  was  no  particular  reason  why  Joyce  should  infer 
that  the  fact  of  inheritance  indicated  the  attainment  of 
his  majority,  unless  he  looked  it,  but  that  was  the  idea 
that  struck  her,  and  with  the  feeling  of  superiority  which 
a  girl  has  toward  a  boy  a  few  months  younger  than  her 
self,  she  said  with  rather  obvious  graciousness. 

"  People  generally  think  fortitude  more  needed  for  the 
loss  of  such  possessions.  At  least  you  must  let  me  con 
gratulate  you  upon  coming  of  age." 

Rodman  gave  her  a  quick  look,  and  then  became  so 
absorbed  in  admiring  contemplation  of  the  picture  that 
he  did  not  answer  for  a  moment.  When  he  did,  some 
thing — admiration,  perhaps,— made  his  voice  a  little 
unsteady. 

"I  like  your  congratulations,"  he  said,  "but  I  mustn't 
take  them  on  false  pretences.  I  came  of  age  some  six 
years  ago." 

"  Oh  !  "  gasped  Joyce,  and  a  crimson  wave  swept  over 
her  face  and  throat  and  temples.  He  tried  to  ignore  it 
for  a  moment,  but  they  both  knew  this  was  a  pretence, 
and  when  their  eyes  met  the  pretence  was  swept  out  in 
a  laugh. 

"Isn't  it  awful  to  look  so  young?"  he  asked  confiden 
tially.  "  If  I  were  a  girl  I  suppose  I  would  not  mind  it 
so  much,  but  you  don't  know  how  trying  it  is  to  have  to 
insist  upon  chronology  to  get  any  semblance  of  respect 
from  one's  associates.  The  only  thing  that  reconciles  me 
to  my  uncle's  legacy  is  the  hope  that  it  may  plough  some 
wrinkles  of  care  in  my  brow.  I  have  Karl's  word  for  it 
that  this  is  not  an  unreasonable  anticipation." 


36  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"You  have  an  opportunity  to  do  more  than  earn  wrin 
kles,  if  you  will,"  Karl  put  in  with  a  flash  of  his  restless 
eyes. 

"You  never  miss  your  opportunity,  at  any  rate,"  Rod 
man  cried  gaily. 

"  Neither  would  you,  if  you  realized  what  it  meant. 
You  would  not  dare  to.  An  opportunity  to  do  something 
practical  for  the  good  of  the  world,  to  actually  help  in 
solving  the  problems  that  thinkers  are  struggling  with  and 
that  humanity  is  dying  of, — the  man  who  can  palter, 
doubt,  hold  back,  with  such  a  chance  before  him,  is — 

"  More  modest  than  the  average,"  Rodman  put  in  so 
suavely  that  the  sharper  word  on  Bahrdt's  lips  fell  sting- 
less.  "  Miss  Mabie,  you  don't  believe  in  him,  do  you  ? 
You  don't  see  any  really  compelling  divine  necessity  for 
me  to  make  a  furniture  manufacturer  and  wood-carver 
of  myself  ?  " 

"  On  the  profit-sharing  basis  ?  Is  that  the  experiment 
he  wants  you  to  try  ?"  she  asked  quickly. 

"  Oh,  does  he  talk  to  you  about  such  things,  too  ? 
Why,  yes,  I  believe  that  is  what  he  calls  it,  but  as  a  mat 
ter  of  fact,  it  is  my  funeral  pyre  he  is  anxious  to  build. 
Don't  say  you  agree  with  him." 

"  But  I  do,"  she  cried,  lifting  her  head  and  flashing  her 
eyes  full  upon  him.  "If  that  is  your  chance,  it  is  a  glori 
ous  one." 

"  I  wish  I  might  turn  it  over  to  you,"  he  retorted.  The 
look  on  her  face  had  made  him  glance  quickly  at  the 
"Spartan  Boy"  and  then  back  to  her.  It  would  not  be 
wholly  to  please  Karl  that  he  would  take  the  picture, 
after  all. 

"  But  you  can't  turn  it  over  to  anyone  else,"  Karl  was 
insisting.  "  The  duty  is  yours." 

"  Did  you  ever  notice,  Miss  Mabie,"  appealed  Rodman, 
"  how  there  is  always  some  one  to  say  that  the  unpleas- 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  17 

~'  / 

ant  thingt  you  particularly  hate  is  a  duty  ?  There  is 
really  something  curious  about  the  coincidence.  And  to 
hold  that  the  part  of  wisdom  is  to  find  that  everything  in 
the  world  is  wrong  !  " 

"It  is,"  Bahrdt  said  bluntly.  "That  is  the  first  thing 
to  learn,  that  things  are  wrong.  The  next  is  not  to  mind 
yourself,  and  the  third  is  to  help  other  people  to  bear 
them." 

"  He  is  talking  rank  heresy,  Miss  Mabie,"  cried  Rod 
man.  "You  won't  believe  him,  will  you?  I  assure  you, 
he  only  proves  that  he  is  wrong  and  that  we  mustn't  mind 
him  and  that  you  must  try  to  help  me  to  bear  with  him." 

Joyce  laughed,  but  she  didn't  say  again  that  she  sided 
against  him.  Something  else  had  come  into  her  face, — 
a  light  and  warmth  and  color  very  different  from  the 
Spartan  Boy's  look.  The  light-hearted  sound  of  her  own 
laughter  made  her  wonder  a  little, — it  would  have  seemed 
impossible  to  laugh  an  hour  ago  ! — but  it  did  not  occur  to 
her  that  Paul  Rodman  had  brought  the  sunshine  with 
him.  She  looked  from  him  to  Bahrdt  with  amusement  in 
her  eyes  and  nothing  more.  They  were  two  opposing 
forces,  she  saw  well  enough,  but  what  was  that  to  her  ? 

"About  this  'Spartan  Boy,'"  said  Rodman,  seeing  no 
plausible  excuse  for  extending  his  inspection.  "  I  like 
him  very  much  and  shall  be  very  proud  to  become  his 
owner, — wouldn't  host  sound  politer?  I  hardly  like  to 
discuss  financial  questions  before  him.  His  superb  thiev 
ery  makes  one  ashamed  of  paying  for  things,  Karl  !  I 
leave  you  to  take  care  of  that  part  when  you  see  Mr. 
Mabie,  and  I  shall  consider  myself  the  Boy's  guardian, — 
during  his  minority,"  he  added  with  a  mischievous  smile 
at  Joyce. 


"  What  induced  you  to  buy  it  ?  " 


38  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

The  beautiful  defiant  eyes  of  the  Spartan  Boy  met  tne 
contemptuous  gaze  bent  upon  them  with  a  look  that  might 
have  answered  the  question,  but  their  language  was  one 
in  which  Stephen  Hale  was  not  proficient.  The  Hoy's 
new  owner  sauntered  up  with  a  smile  and  answered  the 
look  over  his  friend's  shoulder  while  he  answered  his 
friend  in  his  own  vernacular. 
"  It  isn't  a  bad  picture." 

"It  is  just  good  enough  to  miss  being  really  good. 
Therefore  it  is  unpardonable." 

"May  all  the  stars  in  the  horoscope  of  erring  humanity 
fight  against  your  ever  getting  on  the  bench,  Steve.     You 
must  have  taken  your  code  straight  from  Draco." 
"  But  how  did  you  come  to  buy  it  ? " 
"Chiefly  because  Karl  Bahrdt  wanted  me  to." 
"  Who  is  Karl  Bahrdt  ? " 

"  Ein  Bursch  von  iiber  den  Rhein.  A  young  German 
socialist  whom  I  fell  in  with  in  Bavaria  some  two  years 
ago  and  traveled  with  for  several  months.  I  took  a  great 
fancy  to  him  and  would  have  been  ready  to  swear  eternal 
brotherhood  after  the  approved  German  fashion,  only  he 
had  lived  in  America  too  long  to  have  any  of  his  native 
sentiment  left.  Not  on  the  surface  at  least.  It  consoled 
me  for  many  things  in  Chicago  to  find  him  here  a  week 
ago.  I  wish  you  knew  him." 

Hale  lifted  his  eyebrows  with  an  unworded  scorn  that 
would  have  brought  out  the  white  lines  about  Karl 
Bahrdt's  lips. 

"When  you  say  socialist,  you  say  enough." 
"I  wonder  what  would  happen  if  I  were  to  bring  you 
two  together, — Law  and  Order  personified,  and  a  hot 
headed  Theorist,"  Rodman  went  on.  "Would  it  be  a  rep 
etition  of  the  tale  of  the  Kilkenny  Cats,  or  might  there 
be  a  chance  of  your  finding  the  mythical  golden  mean  be 
tween  you  ?" 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  39 

Hale  was  wise  in  many  things,  but  the  gift  of  second 
sight  was  not  his. 

"  Our  ways  are  not  likely  to  run  together,"  said  he 
loftily.  "  Unless,  indeed,  he  has  more  pictures  to  sell !  " 

"  Oh,  I  bought  the  picture  from  a  friend  of  his, — an 
other  disreputable  character  according  to  your  code,  my 
legal  friend.  An  improvident  artist,  irretrievably  ad 
dicted  to  debt." 

"  Quite  the  sort  of  man  you  would  like  to  help,  naturally. 
I  suppose  you  thought  he  would  devote  the  money  you 
gave  him  to  paying  off  some  of  those  obligations." 

"  No,  I'm  afraid  I  didn't.  I  infer  that  the  only  use  of 
money  that  would  seem  reprehensibly  extravagant  to  him 
would  be  the  paying  off  of  old  debts.  I  rather  hoped  he 
might  use  it  in  some  way  for  that  daughter  of  his." 

Hale  turned  to  give  him  a  slow,  level  look  of  inquiry 
which  was  met  with  a  frankly  defiant  laugh. 

"  So  there  was  a  daughter  ?  " 

"Oh,  yes  !" 

"  Young  and  pretty  ? " 

"  I  confess  it." 

"  Would  you  have  bought  the  picture  if  she  hadn't 
been  ?" 

"  Perhaps  not,  Steve.  If  she  had  been  old  and  ugly,  I 
might  possibly  have  remembered  that  I  have  no  place  to 
store  a  picture  and  have  noticed  that  the  shoulder  is  out 
of  drawing.  But  being,  as  you  say,  young  and  pretty, 
that  fact  swallowed  up  the  others,  as  Moses'  serpent 
swallowed  up  those  of  the  opposition.  Who  am  I,  that  I 
should  doubt  the  essential  superiority  of  either,  after  such 
a  proof  ? " 

"  Who  and  what  you  are  is  quite  apparent.  Also  what 
fate  is  likely  to  meet  your  uncle's  fortune  in  your  hands." 

"  My  uncle's  fortune  won't  begin  to  gnaw  my  vitals 
until  you  turn  over  the  papers  to  me  to-morrow.  Then  I 


4O  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

suppose  I  shall  have  to  go  up  to  Hereward  and  look  at 
my  white  elephant, — and  sell  it,  if  any  blind  mortal  will 
come  to  my  rescue.  But  as  I  was  about  to  explain,  it  was 
my  money,  not  my  uncle's,  that  I  squandered  for  that 
picture,  and  the  only  thing  that  I  am  curious  about  is 
whether  the  young  and  pretty  daughter  is  going  to  get  the 
benefit  of  it.  The  '  Spartan  Boy  '  would  then  be  a  chromo, 
— not  artistically,  of  course,  but  commercially." 

Hale  shrugged  his  shoulders,  and  the  subject  was 
dropped. 

It  was  rather  a  pity  Rodman  could  not  know,  consider 
ing  his  interest  in  the  question,  that  a  pile  of  those  same 
coins  of  his  was  exchanged  a  few  hours  later  for  a  ticket 
to  convey  Joyce  Mabie  to  Hereward  and  that  therefore 
they  must  inevitably  meet  again.  Destiny  is  a  wise  nov 
elist,  who  issues  her  fiction  in  installments  so  that  no  one 
can  turn  to  the  end  to  see  how  the  story  part  is  coming 
out. 


IV. 

TOM  GARNER  had  gone  out  to  send  a  telegram,  but  he 
did  not  return  all  the  afternoon.  Joyce  was  at  first  re 
lieved,  for  their  last  quarter  of  an  hour  together  had  left 
a  constraint  that  would  best  wear  off  in  absence.  But  as 
it  drew  toward  evening  she  began  to  wonder  uneasily  if 
he  were  keeping  away  from  her  purposely.  To  insure 
peace  of  mind,  one  should  be  cold  enough  to  keep  out  of 
quarrels  in  the  first  place,  or  hard  enough  afterwards  to 
go  through  them  without  flinching.  Joyce,  unfortunately 
for  herself,  was  neither.  She  went  into  them  at  the  bid 
ding  of  her  head,  and  then  she  repented  herself  with  all 
her  heart  So,  as  the  afternoon  wore  away,  she  thought 
less  and  less  of  justifying  her  position,  and  repented  more 
and  more  the  hurt  she  had  given.  When  a  step  came 
down  the  passage,  she  started  nervously  and  ran  to  open 
the  door.  It  was  only  Bahrdt. 

"  He  hasn't  come  back  yet,"  she  said  anxiously. 

"  So  ?  Well,  you  can  tell  him  that  I  have  seen  Vroom, 
and  that  he  will  send  up  some  men  to-morrow  morning  to 
— take  away  the  things." 

She  flushed  quickly.  So  he  knew  all  about  it  !  Did 
everybody  ? 

"  You  are  going  to  the  country,  I  hear.     When  ? " 

"  To-morrow." 

"  So  soon  ?  How  then  about  the  '  Justice  '  ?  "  he  asked 
with  a  smile.  "  Shall  we  have  to  suspend  publica 
tion  ?" 

"  Oh,  I  mean  to  do  that  just  the  same.     It  won't  make 


42  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

any  difference,  my  going  away,  will  it  ?  I  can  read  the 
proofs  there,  and  send  you  all  the  new  matter." 

"All  right.  Only  you  must  leave  me  your  address.  I 
shall  use  the  whole  of  the  next  number  for  a  special 
report,  anyhow,  so  there  won't  be  room  for  much  of  your 
miscellany.  But  you  can  prepare  it  as  usual.  You  know 
what  is  wanted.  You  do  it  well,"  he  added  with  imper 
sonal  directness. 

"  I  like  the  work,"  she  said  quickly.  "  I  shall  be  glad 
when  I  can  do  more  of  it." 

"  It  is  the  only  work  in  the  world  worth  doing,"  he 
answered  with  a  flash  of  enthusiasm.  "  It  is  the  fight  of 
the  race.  Progress,  justice,  honor,  are  on  one  side,  and 
selfishness,  greed  and  tyranny  on  the  other.  The  man 
who  does  not  hear  the  call  is  deaf.  If  he  hears  and 
holds  back,  he  is  a  coward,  and  recreant  to  his  duty.  It 
is  such  work  alone  that  can  bring  satisfaction.  All  other 
work  is  a  waste  of  power, — a  waste  on  petty  and  ignoble 
objects.  But  it  is  a  cause  that  will  admit  of  no  divided 
service.  You  must  give  yourself  wholly  and  heartily, 
and  never  again  stop  to  count  the  cost." 

Joyce  listened  with  flushing  cheek.  It  would  have 
taken  less  eloquence  than  that  which  his  earnestness  gave 
him  for  the  moment,  to  thrill  her.  Here  was  the  very 
demand  to  which  her  nature  instinctively  responded,  here 
were  ideals  worth  sacrificing  everything  for. 

"  What  work  can  I  do  ? "  she  asked  breathlessly. 

He  looked  as  though  he  had  forgotten  her  for  the 
moment  and  had  been  entrapped  in  his  forgetful- 
ness. 

"You  can  write,"  he  said,  but  not  very  enthusiastically. 
"  If  you  are  willing  to  spend  and  be  spent  for  the  sake  of 
helping  humanity,  there  is  plenty  of  work  to  do." 

"  I  am  ready." 

He  bent  a  questioning  look  upon  her. 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  43 

"  You  can  see,  you  can  understand,  you  can  dare, 
but " 

"  But  what  ?  "  demanded  Joyce. 

"  You  are  a  woman  still.  Love  will  spoil  it  all  for 
you." 

Joyce  threw  back  her  head  with  protest  in  every  linea 
ment. 

"  You  think  not  ? "  he  said  cynically.  "  Well,  it  may  be, 
and  yet —  But  at  any  rate  there  is  always  work  for  you 
if  you  seek  it.  You  will  have  a  chance  to  do  what  you 
are  able  to  do,  of  that  you  may  be  sure.  But  for  the 
present,  study." 

"  Study  what  ?  " 

"  Life.  See  what  injustice  is  done  on  every  side.  And 
books.  See  how  the  learning  of  the  old  world  has  failed. 
And  study  yourself.  Learn  to  keep  a  thought  clear 
before  you,  no  matter  what  personal  influences  are 
brought  to  bear  upon  you.  In  that  women  are  mostly 
weak.  They  will  sell  their  right  of  thought  for  a  mess  of 
pottage, — for  a  soft  word  and  an  easy  hour.  I  do  not  say 
it  is  wrong — for  women.  But  if  you  are  to  be  a  worker 
in  the  world  of  thought,  you  must  cease  to  be  a  woman. 
You  must  be  indifferent  to  praise  or  blame." 

"  Yes,"  she  said.  In  the  glow  of  her  mood  that  seemed 
easy  enough  just  then. 

After  Bahrdt  had  left,  two  or  three  people  came  to  ask 
for  Tom  Garner.  To  her  fancy,  they  were  all  probable 
creditors.  An  errand-boy  left  a  letter  for  him,  and  later 
a  man  came  with  a  penciled  order  from  him  for  the  pict 
ure.  Joyce  watched  it  go  off,  and  that  set  her  to  won 
dering  about  its  new  owner.  He  wasn't  like  her  father 
and  he  wasn't  like  Karl  Bahrdt.  He  didn't  seem  to 
belong  altogether  in  the  same  universe  that  she  was  in, 
he  who  could  laugh  so  easily.  Yet  strangely  she  could 
not  feel  that  he  should  be  condemned,  either.  After  that 


44  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

she  waited  on  with  an  uneasy  conscience  for  her  sole 
companion,  for  she  knew  well  enough  by  this  time  that 
her  father's  prolonged  absence  was  a  mark  of  his  displeas 
ure.  She  ceased  to  think  at  all  of  how  it  had  come  about 
and  only  wondered  anxiously  how  she  could  coax  away 
the  black  mood  before  they  parted.  So  much,  as  yet, 
for  Bahrdt's  requirement  that  she  should  be  superior  to  all 
personal  influences  ! 

When  he  came  at  last,  after  the  gas  had  flickered  dis 
mally  over  her  unread  book  for  hours,  the  letter  on  the 
table  caught  his  eye  at  once.  He  tore  it  open  and  read  it 
while  she  sat  waiting,  and  she  was  dismayed  to  see  the 
dark  look  with  which  he  had  entered  deepen  into  an 
angry  frown  as  he  read.  He  held  it  over  the  gas-jet  and 
dropped  the  blazing  paper  upon  a  brazier  where  it  curled 
up  into  ashes. 

"  What  was  it,  papa  ?"  cried  Joyce. 

"Oh,  nothing, — an  impudent  letter,"  he  said,  shrugging 
his  shoulders. 

She  reflected  that  the  messenger  had  come  from 
Hamon,  the  picture  dealer,  but  that  meant  nothing  in 
particular. 

"  Mr.  Bahrdt  came  in  twice  to  see  you." 

He  had  gone  toward  his  room,  but  he  stopped  with  his 
hand  on  the  door. 

"  Yes,  I  met  him  down  the  street.  He  has  sold  the 
'  Spartan  Boy  '  for  me." 

"  And  there  were  other  people.  I  couldn't  tell  them 
where  you  were." 

"  Who  else  ?"  he  asked  quickly. 

She  named  them.  "  What  kept  you  so  long  ? "  she 
asked  at  last. 

"  Oh,  various  things."  He  pushed  the  door  open  and 
shut  himself  in  without  further  words. 

The  next  morning  the  workmen  appeared  to  clear  the 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  45 

room  at  an  hour  so  unconscionably  early  (for  Bohemia) 
that  there  was  no  opportunity  for  a  tete-a-tete  even  at 
breakfast.  They  at  once  recognized  in  Joyce  the  respon 
sible  head  of  the  house,  and  she,  consequently,  soon 
found  herself  too  much  occupied  with  little  things  to 
give  heed  to  the  higher  demands  of  sentiment.  It  re 
quires  leisure  to  attend  to  the  aesthetics  of  life.  Tom 
Garner  hovered  about  for  awhile,  getting  into  the  way,  ill 
at  ease,  and  failing  utterly  to  extricate  himself  with  his 
usual  skill.  He  appealed  to  Joyce  finally. 

"  Is  there  anything  I  can  do  to  help  you  ?" 

"  I  don't  think  there  is." 

"  Then  I'll  go  away.  I'm  at  a  disadvantage  when 
pitted  against  material  facts,  and  the  facts  know  it  and 
use  their  power  unfairly.  I'm  not  myself  here.  I  need 
an  environment  just  as  much  as  a  jelly-fish  does.  Throw 
him  upon  the  sand  and  he  is  as  limp  as  I  am  when  thrown 
upon  these  noisy  and  dusty  commonplaces.  I'm  going  to 
saunter  down  the  street  and  pretend  that  I'm  doing  it  for 
no  useful  purpose  in  the  world,  and  in  that  way  I  may  be 
able  to  get  your  ticket  and  engage  a  man  to  come  for 
your  trunks  without  getting  into  a  tangle." 

She  smiled  with  rather  a  pathetic  gratitude  for  this  re 
turn  to  his  ordinary  mood  and  manner. 

"  When  will  you  be  back  ?  " 

"  Oh,  as  soon  as  I  think  these  people  have  raised  the 
siege,  I'll  come  and  take  you  out  to  lunch." 

"  That  will  be  pleasant.  Then  we  can  have  a  little- 
good-bye  chat.  I  hardly  believe  I  am  going,  it  has  all 
been  so  hurried." 

"  So  much  the  better.  I  hate  long-drawn  agonies.  Do 
a  thing  and  have  it  over  with." 

He  went  out  carelessly,  and  Joyce  tried  to  fix  -her  mind 
on  the  questions  of  the  hour.  To  a  novice  in  housekeep 
ing  these  were  sufficiently  absorbing  to  put  everything 


46  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

else  in  the  background  for  the  time  being,  and  while  pro 
tecting  the  bric-a-brac  and  the  books  she  was  obliged  to 
suspend  judgment  on  the  graver  questions  of  life. 

It  was  nearly  two  o'clock  when  the  last  furniture  van 
went  away,  and  the  last  cover  was  fastened  down.  The 
trunks  and  boxes  stood  in  a  row  in  the  dismantled  rooms, 
and  Joyce,  very  tired  and  very  nervous,  had  arrayed  her 
self  in  her  traveling  dress  and  stood  waiting  for  her 
father.  She  did  not  perceive  the-  relation  of  cause  and 
effect  between  her  weariness  and  her  mood,  but  she  was 
in. the  state  of  mind  that  goes  with  strained  nerves  and 
spent  muscles,  and  ready,  in  consequence,  to  be  an  easy 
prey  to  the  reproaches  of  a  remorseful  conscience.  Her 
thoughts  sprang  back  to  her  father  as  soon  as  the  imme 
diate  pressure  was  removed.  It  seemed  an  enormity  that 
this  frost,  this  bar,  should  have  come  between  them  on 
the  eve  of  parting.  It  was  all  her  fault.  She  had  known 
of  old  that  he  could  not  bear  criticism.  That  there  could 
be  something  else  on  his  mind,  which  had  given  her  words 
more  than  their  own  force  of  criticism,  never  occurred  to 
her.  She  only  wondered  feverishly  what  she  should  say 
or  do  to  re-establish  in  some  way  the  old  feeling  of  com 
radeship  before  she  left  him. 

Then  she  heard  him  coming,  and  sprang*  to  open  the 
door.  Bahrdt  was  with  him. 

"  Desolation  !  "  he  cried  dramatically,  coining  in  and 
looldng  about  the  room.  "  Doesn't  it  look  forlorn  ?  Let's 
get  out  of  here  at  once  and  go  somewhere  for  a  cheerful 
lunch." 

"  I  don't  want  anything,"  said  Joyce  instinctively.  She 
was  ready  to  cry  because  he  had  spoiled  all  chance  of  in 
timacy  between  them  by  bringing  Bahrdt  ;  she  had  a  sus 
picion  than  he  had  done  it  for  that  very  purpose. 

"  Poor  little  girl  !  You  are  tired  to  death.  And  clever 
little  girl,  to  have  everything  done,  and  in  order  !  You  or 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  47 

I  couldn't  have  done  it,  Karl.  We  would  have  injured 
our  fingers  and  our  chances  of  salvation  and  have  come 
out  after  all  with  a  lot  of  loose  ends  untied,  instead  of 
being  on  time  with  nothing  to  betray  us  but  an  interesting 
pallor.  The  advantage  women  have  over  men  in  looking 
pretty  under  the  most  trying  circumstances  puts  any  dis 
advantage  in  the  way  of  voting  way  out  of  sight.  Put  on 
your  bonnet,  my  child.  You  women  will  never  master  the 
world  until  you  take  a  hint  from  us  and  learn  to  ack 
nowledge  the  consolatory  influences  of  something  to 
eat." 

"  Are  we  coming  back  ?  "  she  asked,  yielding  unenthusi- 
astic  obedience. 

He  looked  at  his  watch.  "  No,  we  shall  just  have  time 
to  take  things  comfortably  and  catch  the  train.  The  man 
for  the  trunks  is  waiting  down-stairs  now."  He  met  her 
eyes  as  he  spoke  and  returned  her  appealing  look  with 
one  so  politely  and  distantly  courteous  that  her  heart 
sank.  Evidently  he  was  not  disposed  to  be  forgiving. 
"  I  haven't  known  him  and  he  hasn't  known  me,"  she 
thought  miserably. 

Bahrdt  had  been  a  silent  but  observant  watcher  of  the 
scene.  His  somber  eyes  generally  saw  more  than  they 
revealed.  It  did  not  occur  to  him  to  offer  to  take  her 
wraps,  but  he  noted  that  she  went  out  of  the  room 
with  never  a  backward  glance  of  farewell.  They  had  to 
wait  a  few  minutes  in  the  hall  below  while  Mabie  gave  di 
rections  to  the  man  who  had  come  for  the  trunks,  and 
then  for  the  first  time  he  spoke. 

"  Is  it  hard,  this  search  for  reality  ?  "  he  asked  in  a  low 
tone,  regarding  her  with  grave  eyes  as  he  leant  with  his 
shoulder  against  the  door-post. 

She  tried  to  smile  in  answer,  but  it  quivered  away  into 
nothing. 

"  Yet  it  is  the  quest  for  the  Holy  Grail,"  he  added. 


48  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

Mabie  came  back  to  them  a  minute  later,  determinedly 
unconcerned  as  ever. 

"  What  a  thing  it  is  to  be  a  child  of  poverty,"  he  said 
lightly,  as  they  went  down  the  street  together.  "  We 
have  no  ancestral  halls  to  appeal  to  our  emotions  when 
we  leave  them,  no  retainers  to  dispose  of,  no  hampering 
circle  of  social  connections.  We  are  tourists  of  the  world. 
We  have  the  freedom  of  the  land  and  none  of  its  obliga 
tions,  and  when  we  take  our  departure  our  hearts  are  in 
tact  and  we  don't  even  sentimentalize  unless  we  want  to, 
— and  then  we  can  regulate  the  depth  of  our  feelings  with 
nicety.  We  have  reduced  living  to  a  fine  art." 

He  kept  the  conversation  in  the  same  key  all  through 
the  lunch,  and  skilfully  managed  to  convey  the  general 
impression  that  they  were  having  a  very  gay  and  festive 
time  and  were  in  high  spirits,  all  of  them.  But  it  was  a 
restless  hour  for  Joyce.  She  listened  to  him,  watched 
him,  wondered  over  him,  scorned  and  pitied  and  loved 
him  by  turn,  but  the  love  welled  up  ever  stronger  and 
stronger  as  the  minutes  went  by.  But  if  he  knew  that 
her  eyes  hardly  left  his  face,  he  took  no  heed.  He  told 
story  after  story  with  a  graceful  monopoly  of  the  discourse 
that  took  no  heed  of  Karl's  silence  or  Joyce's  fever  and 
managed  to  keep  things  in  his  own  hands  until  they 
reached  the  waiting-room  at  the  railway  station.  The 
newsboys  were  running  through  the  room,  calling  the  dif 
ferent  papers,  and  Mabie  beckoned  to  one  of  them. 

"Did  you  get  that  for  me  ?"  Joyce  asked  playfully. 

"  I'll  see,"  he  answered  with  a  smile  as  he  unfolded  it. 

He  had  a  very  tell-tale  face,  and  now,  as  he  ran  his  eye 
down  one  column  after  another,  Joyce  saw  him  suddenly 
blench  and  shrink  as  though  he  had  been  threatened.  She 
questioned  him  with  her  eyes,  but  he  would  not  look  at  her. 

"I'll  get  you  something  better,"  he  said,  thrusting  the 
paper  into  his  pocket,  and  he  went  to  the  news-counter 
for  a  magazine. 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 


49 


"Where  are  you  going  now?"  she  asked  wistfully, 
clinging  to  his  arm.  Bahrdt  had  sauntered  to  the  door  to 
watch  the  incoming  train. 

"  Karl  wants  me  to  take  a  room  with  him.  I  don't 
know.  I  may — go  out  of  town  myself." 

"You  will  write?" 

"  Oh,  yes." 

"And  if  you  want  me  home  sooner " 

"  Home  ?  "  he  said  with  a  bitter  laugh.  "  Our  home  is 
anywhere  and  nowhere  !  " 

"  Well — so  long  as  you  are  there  !  " 

But  he  frowned  as  though  some  thought  hurt  him,  and 
then  the  train  was  called  and  he  took  her  to  her  place. 

"  You  are  sure  you  are  not  sorry  to  have  me  go  ?  ' 

He  almost  groaned.     "  No,  child  !  " 

And  then  the  train  pulled  out  and  she  leaned  forward 
to  see  him  as  long  as  possible,  standing  on  the  platform 
with  Karl  Bahrdt  beside  him. 

So  it  happened  that  Joyce  did  not  see  that  edition  of 
the  daily  papers  at  all,  and  Bahrdt  read  them  but  saw 
nothing  to  take  note  of,  and  Tom  Garner  walked  up  the 
street  clutching  the  paper  inside  of  his  pocket  as  though 
it  were  the  throat  of  a  wild  animal  he  held  down.  He 
fancied  that  every  reader  was  turning  to  that  item  on  the 
second  page  : 

"AN    UNPLEASANT   DISCOVERY. 

"  Mr.  J.  W.  Richardson,  of  this  city,  whose  collection  of  paintings  is 
famous  in  the  Northwest,  has  just  made  a  most  unpleasant  discovery. 
One  of  the  treasures  of  his  collection  is,  or  rather  was,  one  of  Daubigny's 
landscapes.  The  gallery  has  been  closed  to  friends  as  well  as  to  the 
public  during  Mr.  Richardson's  absence  in  Europe  for  the  last  three 
months,  yet  someone  has  evidently  had  access  to  it  and  has  taken  ad 
vantage  of  the  opportunity  to  commit  a  most  ingenious  robbery.  The 
valuable  Daubigny  has  been  removed  from  its  frame  and  a  very  clever 
copy  substituted.  The  work  was  so  well  done  that  the  substitution 
would  not  have  been  so  soon  discovered  but  for  'the  removal  of  the 
painting  from  its  place  in  order  that  it  might  be  re-hung.  It  is  not  by 
any  means  the  work  of  a  tyro." 


V. 

THERE  were  two  incidents  in  that  monotonous  railway 
journey  for  Joyce.  They  left  two  pictures  upon  her  mind, 
and  it  was  only  afterwards,  when  she  found  how  impossi 
ble  it  was  to  forget  them,  that  she  began  to  realize  the 
meaning  they  had  held.  The  riddle  of  the  Sphinx  is  put 
to  every  man  sooner  or  later,  and  it  is  well  for  him  who 
sees  though  he  cannot  yet  answer  that  an  answer  must 
somewhere  wait  for  it. 

They  had  left  the  city  and  the  pleasant  suburbs  and  the 
prosperous  farms  of  the  neighboring  counties  far  behind, 
and  for  hours  had  been  getting  into  a  wilder  and  more 
desolate  part  of  the  country.  There  are  interior  parts  in 
the  western  states  where  nature  is  still  very  near  the  abo 
riginal  condition,  and  where  the  scattered  farm-houses  are 
as  helpless  in  the  grasp  of  the  green  savagery  as  though 
the  rescuing  parties  of  civilization  were  continents  instead 
of  miles  away.  The  tract  through  which  the  train  was 
flying  as  it  neared  evening  had  been  lately  burnt,  and  the 
stripped  and  scarred  trees  stretched  torture-twisted  limbs 
into  the  pitiless  sunlight.  At  their  feet  tangled  vines  and 
underbrush  struggled  half-heartedly  to  hide  the  disfigure 
ment  of  the  earth.  There  was  an  ache  of  desolation  over 
it  all,  even  to  one  flying  through  it  to  reach  a  cheerier  life 
beyond.  In  the  midst  of  this  isolated  dreariness  there 
was  set  a  little  log-cabin,  and  at  the  sound  of  the  train  a 
woman,  with  her  hands  rolled  in  her  apron,  came  to  lean 
against  the  door  and  look.  There  was  an  expression  of 
hopeless  apathy  in  her  face  and  attitude,  as  she  turned 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  5  I 

her  head  to  follow  the  flying  messenger  of  a  brighter 
world,  that  echoed  in  Joyce's  memory  like  the  voice  of 
one  at  the  bottom  of  a  grave,  yet  just  alive  enough  to 
know  that  she  was  buried. 

The  other  picture  was  sharper.  The  train  had  stopped 
at  a  way-station,  a  little  later,  to  have  a  defective  wheel 
on  a  forward  car  replaced. 

"Won't  you  come  out  and  see  them  doit?"  asked  a 
kind-faced  lady  who  thought  the  serious-looking  girl  must 
be  having  a  lonely  time  of  it,  and  Joyce  went  out  with 
the  other  passengers.  A  score  of  workmen  had  appeared, 
though  it  was  hard,  in  the  face  of  the  wild  tangle  of  forest 
that  surrounded  them,  to  guess  where  they  came  from. 
Piles  of  iron  rails  and  rusty  wheels  lay  about,  partly  over 
grown  by  the  rank  grass.  On  one  side  was  a  swampy 
lake  with  luxuriant  water-plants  crowding  the  shores  and 
.clouds  of  insects  hovering  over  it.  On  the  other  side  was 
the  wall  of  the  forest,  green,  impenetrable,  oppressively 
triumphant.  All  about  was  untamed  vitality  of  the  lowest 
order,  and  the  men  at  the  handles  of  the  windlass,  lifting 
the  car  as  the  hand  lifts  a  cushion,  seemed  of  the  same  or 
der  of  life.  They  worked  furiously,  with  shouts  and  laugh 
ter  and  sharp  orders  and  occasional  oaths,  and  as  they 
pushed  and  pulled  and  strained  until  the  muscles  on  their 
naked  arms  lay  hard  and  taut  like  ropes,  they  looked  more 
like  great  gnomes  than  men.  It  was  an  animal  life,  but 
there  was  the  joy  of  the  animal  in  it, — the  joy  that  comes 
from  the  pulsing  of  hot  blood  and  the  triumphing  of 
strong  muscles.  One  man  in  particular  seemed  to  be  an 
embodiment  of  the  spirit  of  them  all.  He  flung  himself 
upon  the  work  with  a  sort  of  savage  joy  in  mere  exertion. 
His  eye  laughed  and  his  sweat-washed  face  gleamed  with 
animation.  At  some  order  he  caught  an  iron  bar  from  a 
rusty  pile  to  use  as  a  lever.  The  action  frightened  out  a 
small  rat  which  had  sought  this  unpromising  situation  for 


52  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

shelter,  and  it  scudded  along  the  gully,  startled  and  fleet. 
The  man  laughed  and  sprang  after  it  and  kicked  it  with 
his  heavy  boots  and  followed  it  to  kick  it  again  and  again, 
till  it  lay  crushed  and  quivering  and  not  even  a  rat  any 
more.  Then  he  came  back  with  a  triumphant  grin,  and 
the  men,  who  had  paused  a  moment  to  see  the  outcome, 
gave  a  shout  of  laughter  and  then  plunged  on  with  their 
work.  It  was  no  sentimental  pity  that  made  Joyce  turn 
away  with  pale  lips.  It  was  the  shock  of  seeing  souls  to 
whom  cruelty  is  sport  and  justice  lacks  a  definition. 

Study  life,  Karl  Bahrdt  had  said.  She  tried  to  find  the 
answer  his  philosophy  would  find  for  this  starving  woman 
in  her  dungeon  of  solitude  and  for  these  men  with 
dwarfed  souls.  That  the  answer  was  to  be  found  there 
she  did  not  doubt,  and  just  then  nothing  in  life  seemed  so 
important  as  that  she  should  find  it. 


VI. 

A  FEW  hours  later  Joyce  caught  her  first  glimpse  of 
Hereward,  lying  cool  and  still  under  the  touch  of  an  early 
May  evening.  The  clouds-in-waiting  which  had  gathered, 
all  a-quiver  with  ecstacy,  to  assist  at  the  function  of  sun 
set,  had  drifted  regretfully  away  to  either  side  of  the  sky, 
and  the  ecstacy  had  faded,  as  it  is  apt  to  do,  into  a  gray 
memory.  A  little  river  curved  like  a  soimitar  about  the 
town,  and  the  sliding  water  reflected  the  arches  of  the 
bridge  upon  which  the  train  had  rested  for  a  minute,  and 
the  shreds  of  drifting  cloud  and  the  line  of  gray  buildings 
near  the  bank,  all  with  a  tremulous  hesitancy  that  seemed 
to  cast  a  doubt  upon  the  substantiality  of  the  forms  above. 
Beyond  these  lines  of  gray  buildings  the  town  lifted  itself 
up  by  terrace  after  terrace,  to  the  wooded  bluff  that  had 
marked  the  river's  sweep  in  that  little  yesterday  of  the 
earth  when  the  men  who  were  to  swear  nature  to  allegi 
ance  were  as  yet  an  unfinished  part  of  the  plan. 

It  was  shaped  like  an  amphitheatre,  and  a  fancy  came 
to  Joyce  that  she  was  stepping  upon  a  waiting  stage, 
where  the  scene  was  all  set  for  the  enactment  of  a  drama. 
Was  it  to  be  tragedy  or  comedy,  or  a  bit  of  realism  that 
would  refuse  to  rank  with  either  ?  Had  she  been  cast  for 
a  speaking  part,  or  was  she  to  be  a  villager  on  the  green  ? 
At  any  rate  there  never  was  a  play  without  a  lover,  and 
even  the  village  girls — found  room  for  frivolous  thoughts, 
it  seemed  ! 

Off  to  the  left,  on  the  low  land  across  the  river,  were 
clustered  half  a  dozen  large  buildings,  square  and  ugly. 


54  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

Factories,  Joyce  thought,  with  a  little  frown  that  was  a 
reflection  of  Karl  Bahrdt's.  Yet  they  too  were  a  part  of 
the  stage-setting  and  might  have  something  to  do  with 
the  play.  Back  of  them  again,  undulating  away  to  the 
far  horizon  line,  were  fertile  farm  lands  and  meadows, 
and  pastures  where  meditative  cattle  stood  at  rest.  The 
optimism  of  spring  was  over  it  all,  and  before  Joyce  knew 
it  the  shadowy  edge  of  her  mood  had  melted  away  in  its 
sunshine. 

The  train  moved  on  to  the  station,  and  there  was  Dru- 
silla  Hamill  waving  an  excited  parasol  from  the  edge  of 
the  platform,  while  her  husband,  tall  and  mild  as  of  old, 
expostulated  with  her  gently  (and  entirely  without  effect), 
upon  her  lack  of  dignity.  Joyce  understood  the  panto 
mime  perfectly  and  laughed  at  it  under  her  breath.  They 
were  not  the  kind  that  change,  those  two. 

"  So  glad  to  see  you,  dear  ;  so  glad,"  Brasilia  said  over 
and  over  again,  as  they  all  walked  up  the  shady  street 
together.  Prof.  Hamill  looked  over  Dru's  head  to  nod 
his  own  and  echo  benignantly, 

"  Yes,  so  glad." 

And  a  flock  of  blue-birds,  holding  possession  of  an 
apple-tree  that  hung  its  blossoms  over  the  edge  of  the 
street,  broke  into  so  unmistakable  a  chorus  of  assent  that 
they  all  laughed.  Perhaps  the  birds  might  have  been  as 
jubilant  if  a  girl  by  the  name  of  Joyce  Mabie  had  never 
come  to  Hereward,  but  then  again,  as  Dru  said,  it  was 
one  of  the  things  that  could  never  be  proved  and  she  for 
one  wasn't  going  to  believe  it. 

If  you  climbed  the  longest  street  in  Hereward  you 
would  come  at  the  end  to  a  white  frame  building  which 
gained  from  its  position  an  impressiveness  that  did  not 
belong  to  it  architecturally.  It  was  known  locally  as  the 
Academy,  and  was  supposed  to  offer  a  particularly  safe 
and  pleasant  route  over  that  desert  region  which  a  youth 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  55 

must  traverse  to  reach  the  promised  land  of  manhood. 
That  the  privileges  were  not  as  widely  appreciated  as 
might  have  been  to  the  profit  of  the  institution  was  evi 
denced  by  the  fact  that  the  two  wings  which  had  been 
planned  when  the  central  hall  was  erected,  and  which  lent 
dignity  to  the  wood-cuts  which  were  sent  out  with  the 
prospectus  every  year,  had  never  had  occasion  to  mate 
rialize  upon  the  ground.  It  was  also  made  manifest,  to  a 
certain  extent,  in  the  domestic  economy  of  the  household 
of  Professor  Robert  Hamill,  though  such  a  statement 
would  probably  have  struck  him  as  a  discovery  in  the 
domain  of  cause  and  effect  worthy  of  admiring  and  en 
tirely  impersonal  consideration. 

"  I  do  wish  the  youth  of  Hereward  were  more  deeply 
impressed  with  the  relation  of  a  thorough  training  in 
Greek  verbs  to  a  successful  business  career,"  his  little 
wife  might  exclaim  when  the  time  for  balancing  the 
house-keeping  books  came  around. 

"  Oh,  I  think  the  percentage  is  fully  up  to  the  average 
in  American  towns,  taking  the  population  into  considera 
tion,"  he  would  answer  placidly. 

"  Then  I  wish  the  population  would  increase." 

"  But  if  the  percentage  remained  the  same,  my  dear,  it 
would  not  indicate  a  wider  spread  recognition  of  the  need 
of  scholastic  culture." 

"  No,  but  it  might  indicate  a  wider  spread  recognition 
of  the  fact  that  Professors'  families  occasionally  like  to 
break  the  monotony  of  explaining  to  shopkeepers  that 
they  have  a  strong  and  inherited  liking  for  those  things 
which  happen  on  this  particular  visit  to  be  the  cheapest." 

The  Professor  laughed,  and  then,  after  a  moment's 
reflection,  it  dawned  upon  him  that  there  might  be  some 
meaning  hidden  under  her  words. 

"  But,  my  dear,  we  have  everything  we  want,  haven't 
we?" 


56  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

And  she,  being  a  woman  who  endeavored,  as  far  as 
practicable,  to  combine  the  speaking  of  truth  with  her 
devotion  to  her  husband,  would  answer  that  she  would 
not  change  lots  with  anyone  in  the  world,  and  he  was  sat 
isfied. 

Half  an  hour  after  Joyce's  arrival,  Drusilla  gathered 
her  family  about  a  table  which  had  been  spread  under  an 
apple-tree  in  the  back  yard.  The  Professor  came  with  his 
hands  full  of  miscellaneous  dishes  which  he  had  gathered 
up  in  the  china  closet  on  the  theory  that  an  exigency 
might  arise  in  which  they  would  be  needed.  Drusilla 
interrupted  her  occupation  of  extemporizing  a  high  chair 
for  her  five-year  old  boy  in  order  to  laugh  at  her  hus 
band. 

"  This  is  a  Hamilly  supper-party,  altogether,"  she 
explained  to  Joyce,  who  was  down  on  her  knees  making 
the  acquaintance  of  Jamie.  "  I  never  would  have  thought 
of  anything  so  delightful  and  so  absurd  as  to  drag  you 
out  of  a  comfortable  dining-room,  where  there  are  spoons 
and  dishes  and  things  within  reach,  and  no  caterpillars 
dangling  over  your  head,  in  order  to  put  you  on  a  very 
tippy  chair  and  serve  your  berries  and  milk  to  you  on  a 
table  that  had  to  be  very  carefully  propped  up  at  one 
corner.  I  like  plain,  unromantic  comfort  myself.  Rob 
thought  of  this.  Rob,  won't  you  lift  Jamie  up  ?  And, 
Joyce,  if  you  will  sit  opposite,  and  pretend  that  you  like 
this  kind  of  a  party,  just  to  be  kind  to  Rob  !  " 

"  Plain  comfort  will  do  very  well  for  ordinary  occa 
sions,"  said  the  Professor  placidly,  "  but  Joyce's  first  day 
with  us  isn't  an  ordinary  occasion,  and  it  must  be  signal 
ized." 

"  That  is  exactly  like  you,  Rob.  Do  you  think  it  would 
spoil  the  romantic  effect  if  you  put  another  volume  of  the 
Encyclopedia  on  Jamie's  chair,  so  that  he  wouldn't  pour 
all  his  milk  down  his  sleeve  ?  If  you  think  you  are  going 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  57 

to  have  any  chance  for  an  orderly,  well-regulated  life 
while  you  live  here,  Joyce,  you  might  as  well  give  it  up  in 
the  beginning,  because  you  won't.  We  aren't  that  kind  of 
people,  are  we,  Rob  ? " 

"  We  wouldn't  recognize  an  orderly,  well-regulated  per 
son  as  a  second  cousin,"  he  answered  calmly. 

Joyce  listened  and  laughed,  recalling  the  old,  queer 
way  he  had  of  touching  things  obliquely.  Somehow  the 
whimsicalness  seemed  to  lessen  the  tension  of  a  direct 
thought.  She  listened  and  laughed  and  thought  how 
happy  they  were  here,  in  a  world  of  their  own  making, 
with  a  baby  Jamie  on  the  other  side  of  the  table.  The 
life  of  the  city,  with  its  problems,  even  the  active  life  of 
her  brain  and  of  "  Justice,"  was  slipping  far  away. 

"  Misteh  Jeff'son  lives  oveh  theh,"  Jamie  announced 
when  he  discovered  that  her  look  had  fallen  upon  him. 
He  had  evidently  grasped  the  idea  that  this  visitor  was 
one  who  stood  in  need  of  any  stray  bit  of  local  informa 
tion  which  might  come  into  his  mind. 

"  Mr.  Jefferson  is  our  next  door  neighbor,"  explained 
Dru.  "  He  is  the  strangest  old  man.  I  don't  suppose 
that  he  really  is  a  million  years  old,  but  he  makes  me  feel 
as  though  he  were.  He  is  an  astrologer, — do  you  see 
that  turret  window?  That  is  for  his  telescope,  and  I 
haven't  any  doubt  he  has  our  little  horoscopes  all  hung 
around  the  walls  of  his  room." 

"  I  suppose  you  mean  that  he  takes  them  with  a  snap 
shot  of  his  telescope,"  said  Professor  Hamill. 

"  Well, — I  don't  know  just  how  he  takes  them,  but  I 
feel  in  my  bones  that  he  has  us  all  down.  I  just  know  it. 
I've  seen  him  reading  mysterious  old  books  that  looked 
like  nothing  under  the  sun  but  books  of  black  art." 

"With  which  we  are  to  suppose  you  have  an  intimate 
acquaintance,"  suggested  her  husband. 

"  What  is  a  blackart  ? ''    asked    Jamie.     Obtaining   no 


58  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

answer  he  repeated  the  word  experimentally  under  his 
breath  before  he  resumed  his  spoon. 

"  Well,  he's  queer,  anyhow,  and  his  name, — now  guess 
what  it  is  !  Hippolytus  !  Isn't  it  awful  ?  Just  how  any 
mother  could  have  the  conscience  to  name  an  innocent 
child  with  a  whole  life-time  before  him,  Hippolytus,  I 
never  could  conceive.  Perhaps  there  was  some  wealthy 
old  uncle  of  that  name,  whom  the  parents  wanted  to  pro 
pitiate.  He  couldn't  have  been  very  wealthy  though, 
judging  by  Mr.  Jefferson's  household,  or,  if  he  was,  he 
saw  through  their  scheming  and  very  properly  refused  to 
be  made  a  party  to  it,  and  left  his  wealth  to  found  an 
asylum  for  bootblacks  who  hadn't  any  names  at  all  of 
their  own." 

"  Aren't  you  carrying  your  deductions  a  little  too  far  for 
a  strict  adherence  to  the  scientific  method?"  asked  her 
husband.  "  You  have  just  admitted  that  you  were  not 
convinced  of  his  existence." 

"  Oh,  now  don't  be  perky.  I'm  just  explaining  to  Joyce 
how  Mr.  Jefferson  happened  to  be  saddled  with  Hippoly 
tus  like  an  old  man  of  the  sea,  and  I  don't  suppose  you 
will  deny  that  that  is  a  fact.  What  do  you  suppose  his 
wife  called  him  ?  Now  that  I  think  is  an  interesting 
question  on  purely  scientific  grounds.  What  could  she 
call  him  ?  I  suppose  when  they  were  first  engaged  she 
tried  to  make  herself  believe  that  she  liked  it.  There  is 
no  telling  to  what  extremes  a  girl  will  go,  you  know. 
They  do  things  that  they  would  see,  in  any  other  state,  to 
be  simply  idiotic,  but  if  they  saw  it  then  there  would  be 
few  marriages,  so  I  suppose  it  is  all  a  dispensation  of 
Providence.  But  when  they  were  married,  she  would  have 
to  face  the  situation.  She  couldn't  very  well  call  him  Mr. 
Jefferson  all  the  time,  because  it  does  seem  sort  of  formal 
and  arms-lengthy,  doesn't  it  now  ?  And  I  object  to 
*  dear  '  and  'darling 'for  promiscuous  public  use.  It  is 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  59 

really  too  familiar  to  be  in  the  strictest  good  taste. 
Something  like  kissing  on  the  front  door-step.  I  tell  you, 
Rob,  if  your  name  had  been  Hippolytus,  I  would  have 
been  driven  to  finding  some  other  name  for  common  use, 
to  save  the  best  one  with.  Sort  of  economical,  you  see. 
The  idea  appeals  to  me  for  that  reason." 

"  What  a  wasted  opportunity  !  I  might  have  had  a 
chance  at  Percival  or  Marmaduke  or  at  least  Marmalade." 

"  No,  I'm  not  grasping;  I  would  be  grateful  for  mere 
commonplaceness  ;  John,  for  instance." 

"  Oh  !  I  don't  believe  in  self-indulgence,  but  that 
really  is  carrying  asceticism  farther  than  is  necessary." 

"  The  trouble  with  a  name  is  that  you  have  to  keep  the 
same  one  all  your  life,"  said  Joyce.  "It  can  hardly  help 
being  too  big  or  too  little  at  some  period.  Mr.  Jefferson 
has  just  grown  up  to  Hippolytus.  It  suits  very  well  when 
one  is  old  and  impressive  enough  to  match  it." 

"  And  I  suppose  he  used  to  be  rather  proud  of  it  when 
a  boy,"  said  the  Professor.  "  There  probably  wasn't  any 
other  boy  in  the  whole  neighborhood  that  had  that 
name." 

An  idea  came  into  Joyce's  head.  Perhaps  this  old  man 
might  have  been  here  in  her  father's  day.  "  Has  he  lived 
here  long  ?  "  she  asked. 

"  Oh,  forever  and  forever,  I  think.  Do  you  know,  I 
have  had  him  a  good  deal  on  my  mind  of  late.  I  dare  say 
it  is  quite  unnecessary,  for  I  must  confess  he  doesn't  seem 
to  have  himself  on  his  own  mind  at  all.  But  he  is  so  old 
and  so  alone,  and  there  isn't  any  one  to  look  after  him 
except  a  sort  of  housekeeper  and  maid-of-all-work  com 
bined,  who  may  up  and  leave  him  any  day  after  the  fashion 
of  women  who  work  for  money." 

"  And  the  fashion  of  men  who  work  for  money,"  the 
Professor  interposed  dispassionately. 

"  Well, — perhaps,"  she    admitted.     "  Not  as   much     as 


60  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

women  do,  though.  I  am  sure  you  can  turn  to  any  his 
tory  and  read  of  soldiers  dying  like  heroes  to  save  the 
lives  of  their  commanders,  while  any  servant  girl  will 
leave  her  place  and  let  her  old  employer  starve,  for  two 
dollars  a  month,  at  any  time." 

"  You  hear,  Jamie,"  said  the  Professor  gravely.  "  When 
you  grow  up  you  may  be  a  soldier  and  die  for  your  coun 
try,  but  don't  you  ever  be  a  servant  girl  and  leave  your 
place  for  two  dollars  a  month,  or  your  mother  won't  like 
you  any  more.  Would  you  like  to  die  for  your  country?  " 

"  No,"  said  Jamie,  after  a  moment's  reflection,  smiling 
like  a  seraph. 

"  Is  he  all  alone?  "  asked  Joyce. 

"  Absolutely.  He  likes  it  that  way.  I  don't.  I  like  to 
have  people  around.  I  like  to  have  you  here,  dear  girl  !  " 
She  leaned  over  to  pat  Joyce's  hand.  "  But  he  is  made 
kind  of  '  curus.'  He  had  a  wife  once.  He  shut  himself 
up  with  his  old  books  and  left  her  to  be  company  for  her 
self.  She  died.  It  took  several  years,  though.  I  would 
have  died  in  three  weeks.  Then  he  had  a  daughter  who 
ran  wild.  Perfectly  uncared  for.  Just  grew  up.  She  ran 
away  and  married  a  scapegrace.  I  dare  say  he  checked 
it  off  on  her  horoscope  and  was  rather  proud  that  it  came 
out  true.  I  don't  feel  really  sure  he  would  mind  if  you 
ran  a  pin  into  him." 

"  Yet  he  has  had  an  unusally  satisfactory  life,  in  one 
way,"  said  the  Professor  meditatively.  "  Most  men  see 
the  life  they  would  choose  for  themselves  shut  away  by 
some  barrier  of  necessity,  but  he  has  been  free  from  all 
exterior  claims.  He  has  not  been  a  citizen  or  a  house 
holder  or  a  father.  He  has  simply  been  a  man,  and 
the  matter  of  living  has  been  between  himself  and  his 
God.  Perhaps  it  is  the  real  way,  which  we  common  peo 
ple  miss  with  all  our  weaving  of  webs  of  circumstance 
about  us.  We  tangle  ourselves  up  so,  in  our  duties  and 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY,  6 1 

our  relations  and  our  wants,  that  we  can  hardly  imagine 
ourselves  without  these  mufflings  or  make  a  guess  at 
what  we  are,  our  real  selves." 

"  Now  don't  get  thinking  that  you  are  sorry  you  have  a 
wife  and  child,"  protested  Mrs.  Hamill  with  a  quick  jeal 
ousy  of  abstractions.  "  We  are  better  for  you  than  Mr. 
Jefferson's  philosophies,  Rob  Hamill." 

He  gave  her  a  whimsical  smile.     "  I  admit  it." 

"  I'll  take  you  over  some  time  to  see  his  telescope,  Joyce. 
It  is  one  of  the  public  institutions  of  the  place,  and  as  we 
haven't  many,  we  make  the  most  of  them." 

"  Then  I  must  warn  you,  Joyce,"  put  in  the  Professor, 
"  that  what  Dru  says  about  his  being  an  astrologer  may 
be  all  very  true,  but  I  have  an  idea  that  it  would  rather 
surprise  himself  to  learn  it.  It  doesn't  sound  so  interest 
ing,  but  the  plain  fact  is  that  he  is  simply —  Oh,  I'll  ex 
plain  later." 

What  he  was,  was  interrupted  by  the  appearance  of  the 
subject  of  their  conversation  himself.  He  pushed  open 
the  wicket-gate  between  the  two  gardens  and  came  slowly 
down  the  path  toward  them  with  a  book  in  his  hand.  A 
tall,  heavy  old  man  ;  slow  steps  ;  a  head  grizzled, .  not 
snowy  ;  old,  not  feeble  ;  eyes  that  lay  like  sunken  lakes, 
untouched  by  storm  and  unwarmed  by  sunlight, — that  was 
what  Joyce  saw.  There  was  power  and  the  repose  that 
comes  of  the  consciousness  of  power  in  every  measured 
movement. 

Joyce  watched  him  with  a  sudden  and  curious  interest. 
She  had  a  feeling  that  already,  in  that  first  moment,  she 
knew  and  understood  him  as  Dru  did  not. 

Professor  Hamill  had  risen  to  greet  him.  "  Won't  you 
join  us  ?  " 

11  No,  no  ;  thank  you.  I  do  not  play  tricks  with  old 
habits.  I  was  walking  in  my  garden  and  happened  to  see 
you.  That  was  all." 


62  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

His  voice  was  low  and  courteous,  but  curiously  imper 
sonal.  He  let  his  eyes  rest  upon  the  group  with  a  certain 
abstract  and  distant  good-will  that  yet  would  have  held 
any  responsive  sympathy  aloof  forever. 

"  Mr.  Jefferson,  this  is  an  old  friend  of  mine,  Joyce 
Mabie,  who  is  going  to  spend  the  summer  with  me.  You 
must  let  me  bring  her  over  to  your  star  chamber,  some 
time." 

Joyce  watched  him  eagerly  to  see  if  any  recognition  of 
the  name  would  show  itself  in  his  face,  but  there  was 
nothing  but  the  courteous  indifference  of  a  stranger  in  the 
look  he  turned  upon  her. 

"  I  shall  be  most  happy.  Come  when  you  will,"  he  said 
quietly.  Then,  turning  to  Hamill,  "  I  have  brought  back 
your  Omar  Khayam.  There  is  much  that  appeals  to  me 
in  it.  Yet  not  its  unrest.  The  man  who  wrote  it  was 
younger  than  I." 

"  But  the  unrest  is  old." 

"  Perhaps  so.  An  old  emotion,  perhaps.  But  the 
strings  in  an  old  harp  do  not  respond  to  the  winds  that 
made  it  tremble  once." 

The  two  men  walked  down  the  path  together,  loiteringly, 
much  to  Joyce's  regret,  for  she  would  have  liked  to  hear 
more  of  Omar  Khayam. 

"  What  do  you  think  of  him  ? "  asked  Dru.  "  When  he 
looks  at  me  in  that  way,  I  feel  as  though  a  breath  from  a 
blue  cavern  in  a  glacier  had  struck  me.  Didn't  he  freeze 
you  ? " 

"  No,  I  think  I  like  him,"  she  said  with  a  laugh.  And 
a  little  thought  that  she  was  too  shy  to  put  into  words 
came  into  her  head.  "  I  believe  I  am  a  little  like  him  my 
self  !  " 

That  evening  brought  Joyce  a  letter  from  her  father 
which  must  have  been  written  a  few  hours  after  her  own 
daparture  from  the  city. 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  63 

"My  dear  Joyce :  I  am  minded  to  try  a  mysterious  disappearance  for 
a  while.  I  want  to  make  some  sketches,  I  don't  want  to  be  bothered 
with  answering  questions,  I  want  to  be  undisturbed, — briefly,  I  want  to 
go  and  I  don't  want  any  one  to  know  where.  I  don't  know  myself  yet, 
so  I  couldn't  leave  my  address  for  my  kind  friends  here,  if  I  wanted  to, 
and  I  don't  want  to.  I  shall  write  you  en  route  and  tell  you  where  to 
address  me,  as  soon  as  I  know  myself.  You  needn't  tell, — and  you 
needn't  worry.  I  suppose  it  sounds  freakish,  but  I  never  did  live  by  rule 
and  compass,  and  I'm  not  going  to  begin  now.  Besides,  you  are  really 
the  responsible  one,  as  I  hope  you  will  bear  in  mind. 

"  Never  mind,  Joyce  dear.     You  can't  help  it,  and  neither  can  I. 

"  T.  M." 

Joyce  read  the  letter  with  a  good  deal  of  surprise  and 
some  dismay.  Particularly  she  puzzled  over  the  sentence 
where  he  attributed  the  responsibility  to  her,  for  she  had 
forgotten  her  own  jesting  remarks  about  mysterious  dis 
appearances  in  general.  It  must  be  that  people  had  been 
,dunning  him,  she  thought  with  a  flushed  face,  and  he 
wanted  to  escape  for  a  time.  But  she  was  wrong. 


VII. 

UNDER  the  blossoming  apple-trees  of  Hereward  another 
girl  was  swinging  that  morning, — an  apple-blossom  of  a 
girl,  with  the  color  of  the  petals  in  her  tinted  cheeks  and 
a  mouth  like  a  half-opened  flower.  The  problems  of  the 
universe  were  not  troubling  her.  She  did  not  look  as 
though  she  had  ever  had  any  acquaintance  with  a  prob 
lem  more  serious  than  the  question  of  how  to  evade  an 
unpleasant  caller  or  to  persuade  Aunt  Eleanor  to  yield  to 
some  wilful  whim.  That  was  not  particularly  difficult,  for 
Aunt  Eleanor  had  a  hospitable  sentiment  for  whims  her 
self,  and  she  was,  moreover,  quite  as  open  to  the  per 
suasiveness  of  a  blue  eye  and  a  beseeching  mouth  as 
though  she  had  not  been  a  woman,  too,  and  of  the  same 
blood.  Aunt  Eleanor  wrote  stories.  Perhaps  that  ex 
plained  it.  She  couldn't  write  stories,  and  be  blind  to 
the  fact  that  as  a  heroine  Edith  would  have  been  irresist 
ible.  If  she  had  been  just  a  plain  aunt  she  might  have 
missed,  through  too  close  proximity,  the  girl's  character 
istic  charm,  but  being  an  aunt  with  a  literary  twist  of  the 
mind,  she  had  contracted  the  habit  of  viewing  her  com 
mon  surroundings  more  or  less  in  the  light  of  material. 
It  is  just  possible  that  a  plain  aunt  might  have  had  a 
livelier  sense  of  responsibility  as  to  the  proper  develop 
ment,  mental,  moral  and  spiritual,  of  her  young  charge, 
but  the  law  under  which  Miss  Estee  lived  was  the  canon 
of  art,  not  the  canon  of  conscience. 

"What  would  be  the  use  ?"  she  would  exclaim  when 
right-minded  friends  expostulated  with  her.  "  I  like  the 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  65 

child  as  she  is.  She  is  complete  in  her  way, — quite  per 
fect  as  the  type  of  a  happy,  beautiful  girl,  without  any 
morbid  cares  or  sense  of  responsibility.  Call  her  a  but 
terfly-girl,  if  you  like.  I  might  clip  her  wings,  but  that 
wouldn't  turn  her  into  a  bee,  fit  to  become  the  subject  of 
proverbs.  It  would  only  spoil  her  as  a  butterfly.  And 
what  with  our  small-boy  humorists  with  their  butterfly- 
nets,  and  our  entomological  moralists  with  their  pins  and 
glass-cases,  the  genus  is  so  near  extinction  that  it  be 
hooves  us  novelists  to  preserve  a  few  specimens  if  we 
can." 

But  to  do  Edith  Estee  justice,  the  butterfly  symbol  was 
incomplete.  She  had  the  child-nature  which  some  women 
carry  into  the  region  of  old  age,  and  which  is  liable  to 
much  misconception  to  compensate  for  its  blessings.  A 
great  capacity  for  happiness  went  with  it,  and  that,  to 
some  mentors  of  Hereward  as  well  as  to  some  outside,  is 
the  equivalent  of  frivolity. 

Yet  she  was  not  under  public  ban,  at  all.  Those  who 
disapproved  of  her  were  the  women  with  a  mission,  or 
those  with  daughters  whose  unadorned  goodness,  with 
reason,  common-sense  and  all  the  eternal  verities  to  back 
their  claim,  was  at  a  hopeless  disadvantage  beside  Edith's 
illogical  attractiveness.  She  was  a  man's  girl,  they  said 
with  a  hint  of  disapprobation.  So  she  was.  She  was 
exceedingly  pretty,  though  rather  "with  the  vanishing 
prettiness  of  girlhood  than  with  the  abiding  graciousness 
of  a  severer  standard.  Then  she  was  not  unpleasantly 
wise,  and  she  wasn't  strong-minded.  She  would  accept 
the  opinion  of  a  man, — just  an  ordinary  man,  who  wasn't 
accustomed  to  being  counted  much  of  an  authority, — 
with  an  air  of  submissive  tutelage  which  was  simply  ador 
able.  It  would  have  been  strange  if  mankind  as  a  rule 
had  not  approved  of  her.  The  exception  to  the  rule  was 
Stephen  Hale.  Ever  since  their  school-days  together, 


66  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

when  he  had  made  her  blush  and  hang  her  head  because 
she  stumbled  over  the  long-division  problems  that  he 
mastered  at  once,  he  had  impressed  it  upon  her  that  she 
fell  far  below  his  ideal.  His  ideal  for  a  woman  demanded 
that  she  should  be  industrious,  and  Edith  was  as  idle  as  a 
bit  of  thistle-down.  It  required  her  to  be  learned  in  all 
housewifely  accomplishments,  and  Edith  would  have 
starved  if  the  cooking  of  a  dinner  rested  with  her.  It 
required  her  to  be  discreet  and  dignified  and  to  wear  an 
aspect  of  cheerful  gravity.  Edith  wasn't  and  didn't. 
Yet  Stephen  Hale  found  occasion  to  call  upon  Miss  Estee 
much  oftener  than  his  position  as  her  legal  adviser  alone 
would  have  made  necessary,  and  the  village  of  Hereward 
had  long  ago  concluded  to  hold  Edith  responsible  for  the 
young  lawyer's  devotion  to  her  aunt's  interests.  It  was 
waiting  with  general  satisfaction  to  have  the  formal 
announcement  of  a  betrothal  verify  the  foregone  conclu 
sion.  As  for  Stephen  and  Edith, — well,  they  were  both 
people  who  would  do  what  was  properly  expected  of 
them. 

Miss  Estee  had  established  herself  within  conversa 
tional  distance  of  her  niece,  with  a  portable  writing-desk 
on  her  knee.  The  desk  was  a  dainty  affair,  bound  in 
morocco  and  lined  with  silk,  and  the  note-book  on  it  was 
clasped  with  gold.  Miss  Estee's  accessories  were  always 
of  that  sort.  She  felt  that  she  owed  it  to  herself  as  a 
devotee  of  art,  to  surround  herself  with  things  which 
should  all  be  artistically  perfect  in  their  way,  and  if  peo 
ple  smiled  sometimes  at  the  ceremony  with  which  she 
treated  herself,  it  was  a  smile  aside.  She  had  clearly 
established  her  right  to  take  her  own  way  in  the  world 
without  help  or  comment,  and  the  way  she  took  was  a 
very  pleasant  one. 

"Do  you  know  what  I  am  going  to  do,  Edith?"  she 
asked  meditatively. 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  67 

"  Write  a  new  story  ?  " 

"  Bright  child  !  But  I  am  not  going  to  let  you  spoil  it 
by  hit-and-miss  guessing.  I  am  going  to  make  a  story 
out  of  Hereward  people." 

Edith  stared  and  laughed. 

"  Honestly  ?     Would  you  dare  ?  " 

"  I  dare  do  all  that  may  become  a  novelist.  Who  dares 
do  less,  is  none.  Besides,  they  will  never  know." 

"  You  ought  to  have  left  that  for  your  reviewers  to  say, 
aunty  dear  !  " 

"  I'm  thinking  of  having  the  phrase  copyrighted  so 
they  can't  use  it." 

"  May  I  be  the  heroine,  please  ? " 

Miss  Estee  frowned  thoughtfully. 

"  I — don't — know.  You  have  posed  so  often  as  my 
heroine  that  I  am  afraid  you  are  rather  becoming  a  man 
nerism  with  me.  If  I  do  have  to  fall  back  on  you,  I  shall 
so  drape  and  costume  you  that  your  best  friends  won't 
recognize  you." 

"Oh,  I  would  like  nothing  better,"  cried  Edith  with 
animation.  "  It  will  give  me  the  chance  I  have  always 
longed  for  of  saying  what  I  think  about  the  other  charac 
ters, — I  mean  the  other  people  in  the  village, — without 
being  held  responsible  for  my  opinions." 

"  I  thought  you  generally  availed  yourself  of  that  priv 
ilege  in  your  own  person,"  Miss  Estee  remarked  drily. 

Edith  laughed.  "  Oh,  that  sort  of  talk  is  only  for  the 
purpose  of  charging  the  conversational  machine,"  she 
said,  without  any  pretence  of  not  understanding  what 
was  meant.  "  People  here  grow  so  dull  unless  you  put  in 
a  little  electricity  of  the  other  sort.  Perhaps  that  isn't 
scientifically  expressed,  but  you  know  what  I  mean." 

"  Yes,  I've  seen  you  do  it." 

"  But  what  I  really  and  truly  think  about  them  I  don't 
often  dare  to  say.  Do  you  know,  Aunt  Eleanor,  I  some- 


68  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

times  think  that  I  wouldn't  ever  have  had  courage  to  be 
a  martyr, — if  I  had  lived  in  those  days,  I  mean.  It  is 
kind  of  awful  to  think  of  it,  isn't  it  ?  Because  I  truly 
don't  believe  I  would,  and  it  must  be  just  as  bad  to  be 
that  kind  of  a  person  now  as  it  would  have  been  then. 
Just  as  bad  inside,  I  mean." 

She  had  looked  up  with  a  sort  of  shame-faced  wistful- 
ness,  but  her  aunt,  after  a  quick  glance,  had  dropped  her 
own  eyes.  What  could  she  say  to  such  a  question, — she, 
not  a  moralist,  but  a  novelist  to  whom  it  seemed  bad  art 
to  discuss  too  seriously  the  bald  questions  of  conscience  ? 
She  wavered  a  moment,  and  then  answered  lightly, 

"Then  it  is  lucky  for  you  that  you  were  born  in  a  toler 
ant  age,  my  dear !  "  But  a  queer  little  voice  down  some 
where  in  her  heart  was  saying  all  the  time,  "  That  was  a 
failure,  Eleanor  !  " 

Edith  looked  away  for  a  moment,  and  then,  as  though 
there  had  been  nothing  between,  she  said  jestingly, 

'"  At  least  I  must  have  something  to  say  about  my  lov 
ers,  dear  Madame  Destiny  !  I  suppose  there  is  to  be  a 
lover  ?  " 

"  Necessarily.  You  shall  have  your  pick  of  the  collec 
tion.  Select  his  outfit  yourself.  Wise  and  grave,  of 
course,  to  set  off  your  frivolity  ;  obstinate  to  a  certain  de 
gree,  as  becomes  a  man  ;  wealthy  and  of  good  repute,  and 
with  correct  principles ' 

"  And  his  name  it  is  Stephen  Hale,"  cried  Edith,  eye 
lashes  drooping  over  pink  cheeks.  "  Oh,  Aunt  Eleanor, 
there  is  such  an  awful  inevitableness  about  it.  Do  give 
me  a  hero  fresh  from  your  imagination." 

"  Very  well,"  said  Aunt  Eleanor.  She  felt  rather 
ashamed  of  her  maneuver,  and  relieved  now  that  she  had 
gained  nothing  more  by  it  after  all.  "  I  suppose  I  shall 
have  to  put  in  some  imaginary  people  to  leaven  the  Here- 
ward  heaviness." 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  69 

"  Mrs.  Hamill  will  do  that." 

"  As  she  does.  And  Professor  Hamill.  I  shall  make 
him  the  mouthpiece  of  my  philosophical  reflections.  It  is 
to  be  hoped  that  I  hit  upon  the  right  school.  It  is  not 
always  easy  to  know  what  he  really  thinks,  because  he  is 
so  sedulously  broad-minded,  so  almost  fanatically  unfa- 
natical — by  the  way,  that's  rather  a  striking  phrase,  isn't 
it  ?  I'll  just  put  that  down  in  my  note-book  before  I 
forget  it."  And  she  did. 

"  Then  there  is  Mr.  Jefferson.  Don't  forget  our  one 
really  picturesque  inhabitant." 

"  I'll  work  him  into  the  background.  Though  I  must 
confess  there  is  some  fear  and  trembling  mixed  with  my 
courage  there.  It  is  a  relic  of  the  days  when  I  wore  tiers 
and  stood  outside  of  the  fence  to  coax  Helen,  through 
the  slats,  to  go  blueberrying. " 

,.  "  That  was  the  daughter  who  eloped,  wasn't  it  ?  Oh, 
put  that  in,  Aunt  Eleanor.  A  real  romance  is  some 
thing  you  can't  afford  to  waste.  Won't  you  put  that 
in?" 

A  queer  little  change  came  over  Miss  Estee's  face, — 
that  indescribable  hardening  of  the  muscles  which  turns 
a  face  into  a  mask. 

"  Oh,  that  is  too  much  out  of  date,"  she  said. 

"  Well,  tell  me  about  it  at  least.  I  never  heard  the 
story  rightly.  Weren't  you  in  the  secret,  and  didn't  you 
help  them  to  get  away  ?  " 

"  At  the  end, — yes.  When  it  was  too  late  to  help  or 
hinder." 

"  But  you  wouldn't  have  wanted  to  hinder  it  !  You 
needn't  pretend  to  be  proper  and  disapproving,  aunty 
dear.  You  know  you  are  ten  times  as  romantic  to-day  as 
I  am,  so  what  must  you  have  been  at  my  age  ?  " 

Miss  Estee  smiled,  but  a  sigh  would  have  been  gayer. 
"  Whatever  I  was  or  wasn't, — well,  I've  had  to  pay  the 


70  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

penalty.  And  in  some  ways  I'm  not  much  changed,  I'm 
afraid." 

"  Did  you  know  her  lover  ?     Who  was  he  ?  " 

"  Yes,  I  knew  him.     He  was  an  artist." 

"  And  did  they  live  happy  ever  after  ?  " 

"  Helen  died  within  a  very  few  years.  He  went  abroad 
after  that." 

"  Is  that  all  ?  "  asked  Edith  with  acute  disappointment. 
"  I  didn't  suppose  there  could  be  so  little  story  to  an  elop- 
ment,  and  that  little  so  commonplace." 

"  It  didn't  seem  exactly  commonplace  at  the  time," 
her  aunt  said  musingly.  "  Unless  the  heartbreaks  of  one 
generation  are  the  commonplaces  of  the  next.  Humph, 
that  sounds  impressive  enough  to  go  into  my  note-book." 

Edith  swung  herself  to  and  fro,  dreamily  wondering 
over  the  story.  Aunt  Eleanor  could  have  made  it  thrill 
ing  enough  in  her  novels,  she  reflected,  but  the  plain 
facts,  as  Aunt  Eleanor  told  them,  were  plain  and  bare. 
That  doubtless  was  the  truth  of  the  matter,  this  young 
woman  of  the  moderns  concluded.  Love  was  all  very 
pretty  when  the  poets  and  romancers  dressed  it  up,  but  it 
probably  didn't  wear  its  star-dust  for  every  day. 
Heighho  ! 

"  Aunt  Eleanor,  I  have  often  wondered  why  you  were 
never  married,"  she  said  with  sudden  daring. 

"  Have  you  ?  So  have  other  people,"  Miss  Estee  re 
torted  coolly. 

"  Did  any  of  them  ever  find  out  ?"  her  niece  asked  mis 
chievously. 

"  No." 

"  Then  I  suppose  I  won't  either." 

"  Oh,  I  don't  mind  telling  you.  It  is  for  the  same  rea 
son  that  a  confectioner  doesn't  eat  candy.  I  don't  want 
to  drag  my  '  shop  '  into  private  life." 

"  Oh  !  "  said  Edith,  and  subsided. 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  7 1 

But  the  ghosts  her  questions  had  awakened  were  not  to 
be  put  down  so  easily.  One  must  be  more  than  forty 
years  before  the  ghosts  of  old  love  lose  power  to  stir  the 
heart.  Miss  Estee's  pencil  made  idle  tracings  on  the  sheet 
before  her,  but  it  was  not  the  plot  of  her  story  she  was 
working  out.  It  was  the  plot  of  her  own  life  that  rose 
before  her, — a  very  simple  plot,  and  all  of  it  told  in  mem 
ories.  First  there  was  the  memory  of  the  awakening  love 
of  a  romantic  girl  ;  even  as  a  memory  it  held,  like  faded 
roses,  a  hint  of  color  and  of  perfume  that  could  make  a 
heart  beat  fast.  And  then  the  memory  of  how  the  rose 
petals  had  fallen  apart  in  her  fingers  and  she  had  crushed 
her  palm  hard  upon  the  thorns.  Even  now  she  had  a 
smile  of  pity  for  the  girl,  (though  she  too  was  but  a  mem 
ory,)  who  had  learned  one  day,  when  the  air  was  heavy 
with  the  fragrance  of  these  same  apple-trees,  that  life  and 
love  must  henceforth  walk  apart.  It  was  Helen  who  had 
won  the  love,  and  to  Eleanor  was  left  the  barren  task  of 
living.  So  long  ago  it  was,  the  very  memories  were  thin 
and  faded,  like  ghosts  indeed.  And  the  story  was  so 
simple  that  it  would  have  seemed  nothing  to  anyone  else. 
It  had  always  been  Helen  who  was  the  chosen  heroine  of 
romance,  Helen  who  had  known  loneliness  and  dreams 
and  despair  and  love  and  daring  and  joy,  who  had  gone 
out  into  the  great  world  with  all  its  wonders  and  who  had 
crowned  her  stormy  young  life  at  last  by  dying — in  his 
arms.  Eleanor  had  only  stood  by  the  wayside  when  the 
splendid  angel  of  romance  passed  by,  and  the  rush  of  his 
wings  had  fanned  her  cheek  a  moment  and  lifted  the  hair 
lightly  from  her  forehead.  Then  it  was  all  over  and  she 
walked  alone.  There  at  least  she  had  triumphed.  She 
walked  alone,  and  had  a  right  to  her  dreams. 

"  Then  there  will  be  Miss  Mabie,"  said  Edith. 

Miss  Estee  turned  to  look  at  her  in  a  dazed  and  fright 
ened  way. 


72  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"  What — what  do  you  mean  ?     Miss  Mabie  ?  " 

"  Mrs.  Hamill's  friend  who  is  coming.  Don't  you 
know  ?  Did  I  interrupt  the  plot  at  a  critical  point  ?  I 
meant  to  say  that  you  can  study  her  for  your  book." 

"  Oh,  yes,"  said  Miss  Estee,  but  she  was  curiously  pale. 
"  Are  you  sure  that — her  name  is  Mabie  ? " 

"  Why,  of  course.  Mrs.  Hamill  calls  her  Joyce,  so  I 
suppose  that  is  what  you  have  heard.  What  of  it  ?" 

"  I  don't  think  I  had  heard  it  before.  It — reminded  me 
—  What  do  you  know  about  her, — or  her  people  ? " 

"She  was  at  school  with  Mrs.  Hamill,  but  she  isn't 
nearly  as  old.  And  she  lives  with  her  father  alone,  and 
he  is  devoted  to  her.  That's  all  I  know.  Why?" 

"  Oh,  nothing,"  Miss  Estee  said  hurriedly.  "  I  once 
knew  slightly, — or  rather  well, — a  man  of  that  name,  but 
oh,  it  would  be  impossible." 

"  Is  there  a  story  about  it  ? "  cried  Edith  quickly,  pounc 
ing  upon  the  hint.  She  sat  up  to  confront  her  aunt 
eagerly,  but  as  she  did  so  she  'caught  sight  of  an  object 
which  scattered  all  her  ideas. 

"  Oh,  here's  Stephen,"  she  said  hurriedly.  "  Do,  for 
pity's,  hide  '  An  Idle  Dream  '  for  me.  He  doesn't  like 
that  kind."  And  she  tossed  the  paper-bound  novel  she 
had  been  reading  to  her  aunt. 

"  Nonsense,"  exclaimed  Miss  Estee  expostulatingly, 
and  making  no  motion  to  pick  up  the  contraband  book. 

Edith  groaned  and  darted  forward  for  it,  and  managed 
to  conceal  it  in  the  folds  of  her  gown  as  she  dropped 
backfinto  her  hammock  and  looked  up  with  a  smile,  half 
saucy,  half  afraid,  to  greet  Stephen  Hale,  who  came 
striding  across  the  plot  of  lawn. 

"  Oh,  is  this  you  ?  "  she  asked,  with  a  little  air  of  sur 
prise  that  was  charmingly  childlike  and  patently  artificial. 

For  half  an  hour  the  thought  of  this  meeting  had  been 
with  him  and  had  quickened  his  pace  against  his  will,  but, 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  73 

now  that  she  was  before  him,  he  bent  a  look  upon  her  that 
would  have  served  very  well  if  he  had  been  trying  to  dis 
concert  a  prevaricating  witness  on  the  opposite  side. 

"That  would  imply  that  you  didn't  see  me  till  this  min 
ute.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  you  saw  me  when  I  turned  the 
corner  of  the  block." 

She  flushed  and  turned  away.  He  saw  that  she  resented 
his  words,  but  if  she  deserved  them  he  was  justified,  he 
told  himself.  Her  lack  of  training  was  always  on  his 
mind.  Then  he  turned  to  Miss  Estee. 

"How  do  you  do,  Miss  Estee?" 

"  If  any  one  else  had  asked  me,  I  should  probably  have 
lowered  my  moral  tone  several  degrees  by  recklessly  an 
swering,  '  Very  well,  thank  you,'  but  as  it  is  you,  I  think 
I  may  safely  say  that  I  am  quite  well  physically  but  some 
what  melancholy  in  mood.  My  mental  faculties  are  in 
their  usual  condition, — modesty  forbids  me  to  character 
ize  it,— and  the  spiritual  faculties  which  concern  them 
selves  with  disentangling  truth  from  falsehood,  are,  I 
believe,  in  good  working  order."  Miss  Estee  felt  that  she 
had  sufficiently  avenged  Edith's  rout,  and  smiled  blandly 
as  she  concluded. 

"  You  think  I  am  hypercritical,"  he  said  quietly.  "  But 
it  is  as  grave  an  offense  to  pass  counterfeit  dimes  as 
counterfeit  dollars." 

"  Don't  insist  upon  putting  us  on  the  other  side  and 
then  arguing  us  down.  Do  take  for  granted  that  we  are 
good  and  virtuous  people,  and  that  we  believe  all  we 
ought  to  believe.  Tell  us  what  you  have  been  doing  in 
the  great  city." 

She  motioned  him  to  a  garden  chair  as  she  spoke,  but 
before  he  took  it  he  glanced  toward  Edith.  The  girl 
was  toying  with  her  fan,  and  her  face  betrayed  nothing 
but  careless  indifference  to  the  world  in  general  and 
present  company  in  particular. 


74  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"  The  great  city?"  Hale  repeated.  He  took  the  chair 
quietly  and  dropped  his  straw  hat  on  the  grass  beside  it. 
"  I  have  been  closing  up  the  Rodman  estate.  Paul  will 
be  here  in  a  few  days." 

"  Paul  Rodman  ? "  cried  Edith  with  sudden  interest. 
"  Oh,  is  he  as  light-hearted  and  handsome  as  he  was 
eleven  years  ago  ?  " 

Hale  gave  her  a  sudden  look  and  then  dropped  his  eyes 
swiftly.  It  was  a  moment  before  he  answered  chillily, 

"  He  is  light-hearted.  As  for  his  looks,  I  may  not  be  a 
good  judge." 

"  Oh,  there  couldn't  be  any  difference  of  opinion  if  he  is 
what  he  promised  a't  sixteen.  Don't  you  remember,  aunt 
Eleanor?  His  eyes  were  blue  and  always  full  of  fun  and 
his  hair  curled  around  his  forehead  in  a  way  that  made 
the  girls  frantic  with  envy.  It  was  such  a  waste  on  the 
part  of  nature,  we  thought.  And  everybody  was  more  or 
less  in  love  with  him.  We  had  just  discovered  Matthew 
Arnold  in  those  days,  and  we  used  to  speak  of  Paul, 
among  ourselves  of  course,  as  sweetness  and  light." 

Hale  was  looking  so  black  that  Miss  Estee  hastened  to 
turn  the  tide  by  asking, 

"  Is  he  going  to  carry  on  the  Rodman  Works,  then  ?" 
Inwardly  she  was  protesting,  "There  is  no  harm  in  what 
the  child  says,  and  he  ought  to  understand  her,  if  he  means 
to  marry  her." 

"  So  1  understand.  He  is  coming  down  to  see  about 
it."- 

"  I  am  very  glad.  He  is  something  less  than  a  forty- 
ninth  cousin  of  ours,  and  I  always  liked  him.  It  is  years 
since  he  was  here.  It  will  be  a  good  thing  for  the  place, 
too.  Hereward  would  not  be  Hereward  without  the  Rod 
man  Works,  and  a  young  Rodman  in  place  of  the  old  may 
be  expected  to  add  something  to  the  town  in  other  ways." 

"  Yes,"  said  Hale  in  a  tone  that  meant  a  very  modified 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  75 

"  yes."  He  was  still  ruffled.  "  He  has  some  dubious  no 
tions  though,  and  some  friends  that  are  more  than  du 
bious." 

"  Oh,"  said  Miss  Estee  coolly,  and  Hale  perceived  that 
he  had  made  a  mistake.  To  make  a  mistake  galled  him, — 
and  particularly  before  Edith.  But  it  was  all  her  fault, 
added  the  Adam  in  him.  Why  did  she  say  what  she  should 
not  say  and  leave  unsaid  what  she  should  ?  Then  an  ac 
cident  happened  which  gave  him  a  chance  to  vent  his 
growing  annoyance  and  re-establish  his  position  as  censor. 

Edith  had  forgotten  the  insecure  hiding-place  of  "An 
Idle  Dream,"  and  a  sudden  movement  threw  the  guilty 
secret  to  the  ground  at  Hale's  feet.  He  picked  it  up, 
read  the  title,  ran  his  thumb  over  the  leaves,  and  then  re 
stored  it  to  the  unhappy  owner  with  an  ironical  bow. 

"The  seventh  this  week  ?  " 

Edith  bit  her  lip  and  blushed  and  looked  as  though  she 
might  cry  in  a  minute.  Miss  Estee  looked  at  her  in  sur 
prise,  and  then,  forced  again  to  mediate  between  the  two, 
she  said  lightly, 

"  Surely,  Stephen,  you  haven't  the  temerity  to  condemn 
novels  while  under  a  novelist's  roof, — or  on  her  lawn, 
which  is  practically  the  same  thing  ? " 

"  Not  all  novels.  But  I  condemn  this  one,  and  I  con 
demn  the  taste  Edith  generally  shows  in  fiction,  and  par 
ticularly  the  number  of  such  books  that  she  reads.  It 
isn't  a  new  question.  I  have  often  spoken  to  her  of  it." 

"  Quite  often,"  Edith  interrupted. 

"  Then  why  don't  you  heed  what  I  say  ?  "  he  asked  with 
grave  surprise.  "  I  don't  see  why  you  should  choose  to 
read  such  poor  stuff, — works  that  give  weak  and  false  ideas 
of  life,  exaggerating  sentiment  and  dwarfing  common- 
sense.  And  yet  you  read  nothing  else." 

"  Oh,  yes,  I  do,"  she  protested. 

"  What  else  have  you  read  this  week  ?  " 


76  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

She  did  not  answer. 

"  This  month,  then  ?     This  year?" 

"  You  have  no  right  to  catechise  me,"  she  said  hotly. 

"  Dear  me,  how  unpleasant  you  children  are,"  exclaimed 
Miss  Estee.  "  Stephen,  when  are  you  going  back  to 
Chicago  ?  "  * 

"  I  may  have  to  go  up  any  day,"  he  said  obtusely.  "  Can 
I  be  of  any  service  to  you  ?  " 

"  Yes.  Leave  your  examining-counsel  manner  there,  and 
be  agreeable  when  you  come  to  Hereward." 

"  Have  I  been  disagreeable  ?  " 

"  Extremely.  Come  up  for  tea  to-morrow  and  efface 
the  recollection  of  it." 

He  glanced  at  Edith  before  answering.  She  had  turned 
her  head  away  and  was  rather  ostentatiously  giving  her 
attention  to  twisting  some  clover  heads  into  a  wreath.  He 
had  not  meant  to  hurt  her,  only  to  instruct  her,  but  it  was 
not  becoming  that  she  should  be  entirely  unmoved.  He 
had  a  feeling  that  he  would  like  to  crush  the  soft  hands 
moving  among  the  flowers,  to  bring  tears  into  the  averted 
eyes,  in  some  way  to  force  her  to  acknowledge  him  the 
stronger,  the  master. 

"  Thanks,"  he  said  abruptly  to  Miss  Estee,  "  but  to 
morrow  I  shall  be  buried  in  work,  till  past  all  chance  for 
tea."  He  was  watching  Edith,  but  she  gave  no  heed  to 
him  at  all. 

"  Make  it  Friday,  then.  And  I'll  have  the  Professor  and 
Mrs.  Hamill  up,  and  that  friend  of  theirs.  And  Paul 
Rodman,  if  he  is  here.  Will  he  be  here  Friday  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  Hale  said. 

"  Then  remember  Friday,"  she  said  definitively.  He 
bowed,  with  another  side-look  at  Edith.  The  conversa 
tion  drifted  into  smoother  waters,  and  after  a  little  while 
he  departed. 

The  two  women  sat  silent  for  some  time1  after  he  had 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  77 

gone,  each  thinking  her  own  thoughts.  Finally  Miss 
Estee  turned  to  her  niece  and  said  quietly, 

"  Why  do  you  let  Stephen  take  that  domineering  tone 
with  you,  Edith  ?  It  isn't  like  you." 

"  I  never  am  myself  with  him,"  the  girl  said  slowly. 
"  But — [  suppose  it  is  because  myself  is  all  wrong.  He 
makes  me  always  seem  in  the  wrong,  somehow.  And  I 
suppose  he  knows,  because  he  is  generally  right." 

Miss  Estee  frowned  a  little. 

"  You  shouldn't  let  him  brow-beat  you  so.  Stephen  is 
good,— one  of  the  best  young  men  in  the  town.  Every 
body  admits  that.  I  like  him  for  his  sterling  qualities,  for 
his  ability,  for  his  family.  But  he  is  masculine  to  an  un 
pleasant  degree.  One  is  sometimes  forced  in  self-defence 
to  be  feminine  to  an  unpleasant  degree  with  such  a  man." 
(She  scribbled  something  in  her  note-book  here,  and  looked 
at  it  critically.) 

Edith  had  dropped  down  in  the  hammock  again  and 
was  swinging  herself  to  and  fro  with  a  thoughtful  face, 
idly  clutching  at  the  grasses  as  she  went  over  them. 

"  Yes,  he  is  good,  as  you  say.  Without  reproach.  So 
was  the  Cavalier  Bayard,  you  know.  I  wonder  if  he 
made  other  people  feel  it  so." 

"  Well,  why  don't  you  snub  him  a  little  ?  It  would  do 
him  good." 

"  I  can't,"  she  said  in  the  same  thoughtful  way.  "  I 
think  the  things  to  say,  but  I  don't  dare  to  say  them.  I 
am  dumb.  But  at  the  same  time  I  always  know  in  my 
heart  that  he  is  right, — about  standards  and  things, — and 
so  I  suppose  I  would  improve  if — if  he — I  mean  if  I — " 
She  stopped  short,  and  then,  still  looking  down  and  mak 
ing  little  ineffectual  clutches  at  the  grass-tops,  she  added 
more  slowly  still,  "  I  mean  if  I  were  his  wife.  He  asked 
me  to  be,  just  before  he  went  away." 

"  Child  !  "  gasped  Miss  Estee. 


78  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY, 

"  Haven't  you  always  known  it  would  happen  ?  It 
seems  to  me  there  hasn't  ever  been  any  escape  for  me. 
Ever  since  we  went  to  school  together,  and  he  took  care 
of  me,  it  has  been  plotted  and  planned." 

"  Escape  !     Why,  if  you  feel  that  way— 

"  I  don't  feel  that  way.  I  didn't  mean  to  say  that.  It 
wouldn't  really  be  fair,  I  suppose." 

"  But  what  did  you  say  to  him,  child  ?" 

"  I  said  I  wanted  to  wait  awhile  before  I  decided.  It  is 
only  putting  it  off,  I  suppose.  There  can  be  but  one 
answer  in  the  end.  But  I  wanted  to  put  it  off  a  little.  I 
wanted  the  summer  free." 

Miss  Estee  let  her  papers  go  fluttering  over  the  grass 
as  she  dropped  down  beside  the  hammock  and  threw  her 
arm  over  the  girl's  shoulders. 

"  Edith,  my  dear  little  Edith,  don't  ever  let  him  be  any 
thing  more  to  you  if  the  thought  makes  you  unhappy. 
There  mustn't  be  any  question  in  your  mind, — any  doubt 
at  all.  You  think  me  an  old  sentimental  woman,  I  dare 
say,  with  my  stories  and  my  dreams,  but,  my  dear  girl, 
love  isn't  a  dream.  It  is  something  very  real.  I  know. 
That's  why  I  am  alone  to-day, — because  I  did  know  once, 
and  after  that  could  never  have  been  content  with  any 
substitute.  Never  !  Never  !  " 

Edith  touched  the  cheek  that  was  near  her  face  with 
caressing  fingers. 

"  Dear  old  aunty  !  But  you  are  more  romantic  than  I, 
and  braver,  I  guess.  I  wouldn't  dare  to  be  an  old  maid." 

"  But  if  you  don't  love  him — 

"Oh,  well,  perhaps  I  do — enough.  I  ought  to,  if  I 
don't,  because  he  is— irreproachable.  Everybody  says  so, 
so  it  must  be  so.  Besides,  I'm  not  going  to  decide  yet 
awhile.  It  is  this  way,  aunt  Eleanor.  Stephen  is  the 
most — well,  eligible  ;  there  isn't  any  other  word,  though 
that  doesn't  sound  nice  for  a  girl  to  say, — but  girls  have 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  79 

to  think  of  such  things.  What  I  mean  is  that  if  I  am 
going  to  marry  (and  I  don't  see  what  I  shall  do  if  I 
don't),  I  must  marry  some  one  who  is  clever  and  not 
poor,  and  respected,  and  all  that.  I  couldn't  think  of  any 
one  who  wasn't,  even  if  he  was  nice  in  himself,  because 
I'm  not  romantic  like  you,  aunty  dear.  Well,  Stephen  is 
all  that.  It  is  a  marriage  everyone  would  approve  of, — 
and  I  like  to  be  approved  of.  And  there  isn't  really  any 
good  reason  for  saying  no." 

"  But  that  isn't  the  idea,"  cried  Miss  Estee.  "  Child, 
child,  you  might  be  my  grandmother,  the  way  you  talk." 

Edith  laughed  and  jumped  up,  shaking  her  skirts  into 
shape. 

"  I'm  a  modern  young  woman,  nothing  worse.  I'm  not 
going  to  let  my  heart  run  away  with  my  head,  that's  all. 
However, — it  isn't  settled  yet." 

She  picked  up  the  condemned  "  Idle  Dream,"  and  saun 
tered  toward  the  house  with  a  bit  of  song  on  her  lips, 
and  Eleanor  Estee  sat  down  in  the  shadow  of  the  apple- 
tree  and  dreamed  over  again  the  dream  that  had  been 
the  shaping  reality  of  her  life.  What  it  had  meant  in  the 
first  blush  of  rapture,  in  the  sharp  hours  of  pain,  in  the 
long  years  of  waiting  that  had  slipped  by  more  and  more 
gently,  no  one  but  she  could  have  told, — unless  you 
guessed  it  from  her  face.  There  were  lines  of  gray  in  the 
hair  and  she  wore  glasses  when  she  read,  but  the  face 
back  of  the  thin  mask  the  years  had  left  was  still  the  face 
of  a  young  girl. 


VIII. 

"An,  if  Miss  Mabie  is  out,  I  shall  have  credit  for  a  call 
upon  her,  and  the  pleasure  of  a  call  upon  you,  all  in  one," 
said  Miss  Estee,  with  the  touch  of  smiling  cynicism  which 
she  wore  as  a  part  of  her  mental  dress.  She  leaned  back 
in  her  rocker  and  smiled  down  at  Drusilla  Hamill  who 
had  taken  a  low  piazza  chair.  "  Tell  me  something  about 
her  before  I  meet  her." 

"  Oh,  I  hope  you  will  like  her,"  cried  Dm,  leaning  over 
to  rest  her  hand  for  a  moment  on  Miss  Estee's  knee.  "  I 
know  in  my  secret  soul  that  it  is  no  sort  of  use  planning 
to  have  your  friends  be  friends  with  each  other,  but  I  am 
always  doing  it.  Somehow  it  almost  seems  an  algebraic 
necessity  that  if  you  like  two  bodies  equally,  they  should 
like  each  other.  Doesn't  it  sound  like  an  axiom  or  a 
theorem,  or  at  least  a  corollary  ?  But  they  don't.  I 
always  think  they  will,  and  I  never  get  to  have  sense 
enough  not  to  be  disappointed  when  it  all  turns  out  as  flat 
as  soda-water  without  any  fizz  to  it.  But  I  want  you  to 
like  Joyce,  because  she  really  is  so  nice  when  you  know 
her,  and  so  I  think  perhaps  I'd  better  just  let  you  find  her 
out  for  yourself." 

"  I'll  make  a  point  of  having  my  affections  fizz  enthu 
siastically  for  your  sake,  my  dear,"  said  Miss  Estee  with 
a  smile.  It  was  as  impossible  for  older  women  to  keep 
from  petting  Dru  as  it  is  for  school-girls  to  keep  from 
kissing  a  baby.  "  At  least,  tell  me  who  she  is.  That  is 
to  say,  who  are  her  parents  ? " 

"  She  doesn't  remember  her  mother.     Think  of  it,  dear 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  8 1 

Miss  Estee.  I  tell  you,  when  I  think  of  Jamie  growing 
up  all  by  himself  without  remembering  me,  it  makes  me 
feel  pretty  solemn." 

"  But  her  father  ?  "  asked  Miss  Estee.  And  not  being  a 
character  in  a  play  but  only  a  living  woman  asking  about 
the  man  whose  image  had,  actively  or  passively,  been  a 
part  of  her  thought  for  twenty  years  and  more,  there  was 
no  break  in  her  voice  or  change  in  her  face  as  she  spoke. 

"  He  is  an  artist,  but  I  don't  suppose  he  is  much  of  an 
artist.  You  never  hear  of  him." 

"  Do  you  know  his  first  name  ? " 

Dru  meditated. 

"  Thomas,  I  think.     Yes,  I  am  sure.     Thomas  Mabie." 

"Where  do  they  live  ?"  Miss  Estee  pursued  with  polite 
interest. 

"  Nowhere  and  everywhere  !  She  has  no  more  idea  of 
a  home  than  a  gypsy.  Oh,  they  have  lived  in  Chicago  for 
the  last  year  or  more,  but  in  an  entirely  Bohemian  way. 
It  is  queer  to  me,  that  sort  of  life.  I  suppose  I'm  bigoted 
and  narrow-minded, — Rob  says  I  am, — but  I  can't  make  it 
seem  right  for  a  girl  to  grow  up  with  ideas  on  art  and 
socialism  and  public  matters  and  know  nothing  of  the 
saving  trifles  that  feminine  life  is  mostly  made  of.  I'll 
admit  there  isn't  anything  intrinsically  evil  in  art  and 
socialism  and  public  matters, — you  can't  say  I'm  not  fair 
to  the  verge  of  generosity  !  But  when  you  have  such 
things  undiluted,  the  atmosphere  isn't  healthy.  That's  it. 
It  is  the  atmosphere  more  than  the  things  themselves. 
So  when  letter  after  letter  came  from  Joyce  all  full  of 
ideas  and  all  barren  of  incidents,  I  felt  that  it  would  be  a 
good  thing  for  her  to  come  out  here  where  we  aren't 
bothered  with  ideas,  and  don't  want  to  be  !  " 

"  Has  her  father  gone  in  for  socialism,  then  ? "  There 
was  an  accent  of  astonishment  in  Miss  Estee's  voice. 

"  No-o,  but  he  lets  Joyce." 


82  APPRENTICES   TO  DESTINY. 

"  Is  he  coming  here  ?" 

"  No,  he  has  just  gone  off  on  a  sketching  tour.  I  don't 
know  where,  exactly.  I'm  a  little  afraid, — "  She  hesi 
tated,  divided  between  a  fear  of  gossip  and  a  love  of  what 
Rob  called  gravely  "an  intimate  study  of  humanity," — "I 
am  afraid  Joyce  isn't  altogether  happy  about  her  father. 
Perhaps  it  was  just  a  notion,  but  I  thought  she  avoided 
speaking  of  him,  and  that  she  seemed  constrained.  She 
is  one  of  the  intense  kind,  you  know,  with  a  complete 
outfit  of  brand-new  ideals,  all  appallingly  speckless,  and  I 
fancy  to  a  girl  of  that  sort  a  father  like  Thomas  Mabie 
might  be  pretty  disappointing  on  close  acquaintance." 

"  The  girl  probably  doesn't  understand  him,"  Miss  Es- 
tee  said  abruptly,  shaking  off  the  absent  look  with  which 
she  had  been  listening.  "  How  could  a  jeune  personne 
understand  such  a  man  ?  He  represents  life,  and  life 
always  is  at  odds  with  ideals.  It  takes  art  to  measure 
both — and  that  only  on  condition  that  it  surrender  to 
neither.  I'm  art,  you  understand,  my  dear,"  she  added 
with  a  glancing  amusement.  "  Art  is  the  only  thing  that 
is  both  clean  and  sane.  Life  is  not  clean  and  ideals  are 
not  sane.  Yet  they  tantalize  and  haunt  me,  both  the  life 
which  I  have  kept  out  of  and  the  ideals  that  are  only  art- 
material  for  me.  They  tantalize  and  haunt  me,  though  I 
have  made  my  choice  for  art,  and  would  make  it  again. 
What  else  is  worth  while  ?  Not  the  fever  of  sharing  in 
the  tumults  of  such  a  life  as  Thomas  Mabie's.  I'm  not 
like  myself,  am  I  ?  But  a  restless  longing  for  some  share 
in  the  swell  of  passion  and  experience  comes  over  me 
sometimes.  It  is  a  part  of  my  youth,  I  suppose,  that 
hasn't  grown  old  with  my  hair  and  my  dresses.  Youth 
dies  much  more  quickly  in  a  woman's  face  than  in  her 
heart.  Half  the  tragedies  of  womankind  come  from  that. 
I  think  the  ghost  of  my  girlhood  has  been  walking  to-day." 

She  leaned  forward  suddenly  and  took  Dru's  face  be- 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  83 

t \veen  her  hands.  "  Dear  little  girl,  you  at  any  rate  are 
nice  and  faithful  and  happy." 

"  Dear  Miss  Estee,"  murmured  Dru,  too  much  surprised 
at  this  unusual  demonstration  to  frame  any  guess  at 
what  had  brought  the  mood.  Then  she  sprang 
up  ;  "  Ah,  there  is  Joyce.  Jamie  has  been  taking  her 
around." 

A  tall  girl  was  coming  up  the  walk,  and  Miss  Estee 
leaned  forward  with  a  queer  throb  of  the  heart.  What 
she  saw  was  a  quiet  face  of  the  sort  that  can  leap  to  a 
passion  but  would  miss  the  gradations  between.  The 
dark  eyes,  made  yet  darker  by  the  shadows  of  black 
lashes,  rested  upon  ordinary  objects  with  an  expression  of 
indifference  that  yet  held  no  lightest  touch  of  scorn.  It 
was  rather  the  indifference  of  one  who  is  waiting.  Her  lips 
met  in  a  still,  even  line.  It  was  a  face  that  revealed  little  yet 
suggested  endlessly.  There  was  a  hint  somewhere  of  the 
resemblance  Miss  Estee  looked  for,  but  so  illusive  that  it 
was  impossible  to  define  it. 

Dru  introduced  her  when  she  came  up,  and  she  sat 
down  on  the  topmost  step,  leaning  her  head  back  against 
the  pillar.  In  her  attitude  there  was  the  same  suggestion 
of  waiting  interest. 

"  Ardent,  yet  cold,"  thought  Miss  Estee,  watching  the 
girl  critically.  "  She  might  sacrifice  herself  for  a  cause, 
but  hardly  for  a  person.  Where  did  she  get  that  look  of 
reserve-power  ?  Not  from  poor  Helen,  with  her  passionate 
impulsiveness.  Never  from  Tom  Mabie.  He  wouldn't 
have  worn  that  brooding  look  if  the  world  had  been 
waiting  for  its  doom.  Ah  !  "  She  leaned  forward  so  sud 
denly  that  Joyce  turned  her  dark  gray  eyes  full  upon  her, 
and  then  she  laughed  lightly. 

"  Forgive  my  staring,  Miss  Mabie.  There  was  some 
thing  in  your  face  that  hinted  a  resemblance,  and  I  have 
just  traced  it.  It  will  sound  absurd,  but  there  is  some- 


84  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

thing  in  your  face  that  reminds  me  of  Mr.  Jefferson.     Do 
you  know  him  ?  "  she  asked,  watching  the  girl. 

"  I  saw  him  here  yesterday,"  said  Joyce.  She  looked 
amused  and  curious,  but  her  manner  was  so  frank  that 
Miss  Estee  had  to  acquit  her  of  any  reticence.  So  she 
did  not  know  he  was  her  grandfather  !  Evidently,  then, 
Tom  wished  she  should  not  know.  Miss  Estee  glanced 
at  the  old  astronomer's  turret,  showing  through  the  trees 
and  throwing  its  shadow  across  the  lawn  to  Joyce's  feet, 
and  wondered  what  the  recluse  would  say  to  the  story — 
and  the  silence.  Well,  if  Tom  wished  the  story  untold, 
it  should  remain  untold,  so  far  as  she  was  concerned,  she 
concluded. 


IX. 

WHEN  Hale,  correct  and  punctual,  put  in  an  appearance 
at  Miss  Estee's  little  parlor  Friday  evening,  he  had  appar 
ently  banished  his  demon  of  contrariness.  The  force  and 
vigor  and  directness  of  the  man  made  him  a  delightful 
talker  when  he  would  condescend  to  the  task  of  entertain 
ing,  and  he  devoted  himself  to  Edith  with  an  animation 
that  brought  a  responsive  brightness  into  her  face.  A 
girl  loves  to  be  courted,  and  there  is  unquestionably  an 
added  charm  when  the  courting  is  done  by  a  man  whose 
general  form  of  address  is  in  the  imperative  mood.  In 
this  lies  the  true  reason  for  the  superlative  incivility  by 
which  the  hero  may  be  picked  out  at  sight  in  a  certain 
class  of  novels.  Edith  felt  the  homage  and  was  flattered 
by  it,  and  probably  thought  that  if  the  power  of  her  per 
sonality  could  bring  out  this  unwonted  side  of  his  charac 
ter,  it  could  always  keep  the  darker  mood  in  abeyance. 
Even  Miss  Estee,  who  had  much  experience  in  the  theory 
of  the  art  of  love-making,  felt  reassured  as  she  listened 
to  him  with  half  an  ear,  while  giving  her  attention  nomi 
nally  to  Drusilla's  story.  Dru  was  of  course  telling  a 
story.  They  say  a  French  cook  can  make  a  delicious 
soup  out  of  two  beans  and  the  shadow  of  a  bone  ;  Dru 
could  make  an  entrancing  story  out  of  a  walk  down  the 
block  with  her  eyes  bandaged. 

They  were  all  laughing  at  the  story  when  Rodman  was 
announced.  He  hesitated  a  moment  in  the  doorway 
before  his  eye  fell  upon  Miss  Estee,  and  in  that  moment 


86  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

Joyce  recognized  him  with  much  surprise  and  a  quick 
pleasure.  He  came  as  he  had  come  before,  bringing  a 
sense  of  sunshine  and  outdoor  cheer  and  vitality  in  his 
very  atmosphere,  for  the  level  rays  of  the  sunset,  coming 
in  through  the  opposite  window,  fell  upon  him  in  a  dazzle 
of  glory  that  made  a  striking  contrast  with  the  quiet  pro 
priety  of  ordinary  humanity.  It  is  rather  a  disadvantage, 
in  some  ways,  for  a  man  to  be  noticeably  good-looking, 
but  it  occasionally  gives  him  a  chance  to  get  into  the  lit 
tle  pictures  with  which  memory  vignettes  its  pages. 
Years  after  Joyce  could  shut  her  eyes  and  see  the  picture 
he  made  there  in  the  sunlight,  and  the  surprised  pleasure 
in  his  eyes  when  they  fell  upon  her. 

Miss  Estee  had  seen  him  a  few  hours  before.  She  pre 
sented  him  now  to  Mrs.  Hainill  and  the  Professor,  and 
lastly  to  Joyce  as  her  "  cousin  Paul." 

"  You  here  ?     How  nice  !  "  he  said  softly. 

Joyce  smiled  at  his  way  of  taking  her  for  granted. 

At  the  tea-table  the  talk  soon  turned  to  local  subjects. 

"The  place  seems  very  little  changed,"  said  Paul. 

'"Why  should  it  be  ?  It  was  good  enough  in  the  begin 
ning,"  returned  Miss  Estee  in  the  capacity  of  oldest 
inhabitant. 

"  I  wonder  if  some  of  my  old  friends  are  here  still, — 
Ben  Baily,  for  instance." 

"  Ben  Bail}'  ?  Why,  did  you  know  him  ? "  asked  the 
Professor  with  quick  interest.  "  I  thought  he  was  a  new 
comer." 

"He  went  away  some  time  after  Paul's  last  visit  and 
only  came  back  a  year  or  two  ago.  He  is  here,  Paul,  and 
has  made  himself  one  of  the  notable  characters  of  the 
town." 

"  And  one  with  which  the  town  might  advantageously 
dispense,"  added  Hale  grimly. 

"  Why  ? " 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  8/ 

"  He  is  a  mischief-maker, — a  regular  fire-brand." 

"  Oh,  not  quite  that,"  expostulated  the  Professor. 

"  You  must  admit  that  he  is  lawless,  in  theory  and  what 
is  worse,  in  practice." 

"  And  corrupts  the  minds  of  the  youth,  as  was  said  of 
another  character  some  centuries  ago.  Ben  Baily  is  our 
Hereward  gadfly,  Mr.  Rodman." 

"  I  am  surprised.  He  was  one  of  my  heroes,  when  I 
was  a  boy  and  he  was  the  best  wood-carver  in  my  uncle's 
factory." 

"  He  isn't  in  the  Works,  now.  He  is  a  free  lance,  and 
sometimes  he  runs  a-tilt  with  Stephen's  ideas  of  law  and 
order,  but  no  one  is  hurt,"  said  Miss  Estee. 

"  And  Mr.  Jefferson.     He  is  still  alive  ?  " 

"  Oh,  yes,  indeed." 

"  I  must  hunt  him  up.  He  was  always  different  from 
everyone  else  in  the  world  to  me." 

"  He  is  really  different,"  said  the  Professor  eagerly. 
"  Most  of  us  are  cut  out  pretty  much  of  a  pattern,  but  he 
is  very  individual.  The  rest  of  us  aren't  well  enough 
acquainted  with  ourselves  to  know  what  we  really  care 
for,  so  we  follow  the  crowd  and  accept  its  aims,  just  as  a 
mob  will  follow  a  dozen  boys  down  the  street  if  only  they 
set  off  on  a  run.  But  Mr.  Jefferson  never  was  led  away. 
He  made  up  his  mind  in  the  beginning  that  the  things 
which  interest  the  mob  of  humanity,  such  as  wealth  and 
fame  and  family,  were  straws  in  the  street,  so  he  placidly 
went  his  way  counting  the  stars  and  very  properly  ignor 
ing  the  cries  and  remonstrances  of  the  mob." 

Miss  Estee  glanced  involuntarily  at  Joyce  at  this.  It 
was  hard  to  realize  that  she  would  have  no  personal  feel 
ing. 

"  I  am  almost  as  much  of  a  stranger  here  as  you  can  be, 
Miss  Mabie,"  said  Rodman,  catching  but  not  understand 
ing  the  look. 


88  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"  Oh,  there  is  a  difference.  You  mean  to  stay  here,  do 
you  not  ?  " 

"  No,  I  think  not.  I  mean  to  sell  the  Works,  if  possi 
ble." 

There  was  a  general  movement  of  surprise,  and  Hale 
turned  to  look  at  him  questioningly. 

"  Your  poor  uncle  Ned  !  "  ejaculated  Miss  Estee. 

Paul  looked  rueful  but  he  held  to  his  point  valiantly. 

"  Wouldn't  I  be  doing  better  by  uncle  Ned  to  give  it  up 
in  the  beginning  than  to  keep  it  and  bungle  it  ?  " 

"  Nobody  said  you  would  bungle  it." 

"  You  will  look  far  before  you  find  a  better-paying 
investment,"  said  Hale. 

"  And  what  will  become  of  the  poor  workmen  if  you 
give  it  up  ?  "  exclaimed  Mrs.  Hamill. 

"  And  what  will  become  of  all  the  picnics  and  private 
theatricals  we  have  planned  ?  "  demanded  Edith. 

"What  will  become  of  Hereward  generally?"  echoed 
Miss  Estee.  "  The  Rodman  Works  are  our  only  tradi 
tion.  They  go  back  to  the  beginning." 

"  But  think  of  me  !  "  cried  Rodman  with  comical  distress. 
"What  will  become  of  me  if  I  keep  them  ?  " 

"  You  will  become  a  rich  man." 

"You  will  be  a  father  to  the  poor." 

"  You  will  be  the  great  man  of  the  village." 

Paul  looked  from  one  to  another. 

"  The  toils  are  closing  around  me  !  "  he  groaned. 

"  Does  it  interfere  with  any  previous  plans  ?  "  asked  the 
Professor. 

"Very  decidedly.  I'm  a  naturalist, — what  there  is  of 
me.  That's  what  I've  been  in  Europe  the  last  five  years 
for.  And  I've  planned, — well,  other  things,  you  under 
stand.  But  ever  since  I  came  home,  to  America  that  is, 
I've  felt  myself  veering  around  like  a  protesting  weather 
cock." 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  89 

"What  has  made  you  veer  ?  "  asked  Edith  saucily. 

Rodman  laughed.  "  The  high  pressure  of  the  moral  at 
mosphere  here.  I  am  no  longer  able  to  look  at  a  question 
from  the  point  of  view  of  whether  I  like  it  or  not." 

"  True,"  said  the  Professor,  with  a  kindling  face.  "  Peo 
ple  are  beginning  to  think  and  talk  much  more  about  the 
reason  behind  actions.  Do  you  mean  that  you  were  really 
conscious  of  it  when  you  returned  ?" 

"Almost  oppressively  conscious,"  said  Paul,  shaking 
his  head  with  a  smile.  "  It  seems  to  me  that  you  have 
been  doing  nothing  but  evolving  problems  and  that  every 
right-minded  person  is  expected  to  sit  up  nights  brooding 
over  them.  I  have  wondered  sometimes  whether  you 
were  bringing  them  out  for  my  benefit,  like  your  company 
manners  and  your  best  china,  or  whether  you  dined  with 
them  regularly.'' 

"  You  shall  have  nicked  china  to  reassure  you  when  you 
come  to  see  me,"  said  Mrs  Hamill.  "  But  what  do  you 
mean  ?  Do  give  us  an  instance." 

"  Instances  are  as  thick  as  blackberries.  I  talk  to  the 
politician,  and  I  soon  discover  that  politics  are  a  fit  sub 
ject  for  reform.  I  listen,  am  impressed,  and  in  a  burst  of 
reflected  enthusiasm  I  carry  my  newly-grafted  ideas  to 
my  next  neighbor,  who  happens  to  have  an  interest  in 
educational  methods,  and  behold,  the  present  system  of 
education  is  in  even  a  more  critical  state  than  the  politics 
of  the  nation.  I  immediately  catch  fire  and  try  to  light 
the  torch  of  my  next  neighbor  on  the  other  side,  when  I 
find  that  he  already  has  a  lantern  which  is  throwing  a 
most  damaging  radiance  into  the  dark  corners  of  our 
present  system  of  relieving  the  poor.  When  he  has  talked 
to  me  for  half  an  hour,  I  am  crushed  to  the  earth  with  the 
consciousness  of  having  undermined  the  moral  constitution 
of  a  score  of  street  beggars  within  the  last  fortnight.  I 
can  only  redeem  myself  by  bringing  my  new  knowledge 


go  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

to  the  ears  of  the  rest  of  humanity,  but  the  first  man  to 
whom  I  begin  to  expound  it  begs  me  to  wait  a  moment 
while  he  convinces  me  that  our  whole  social  plan  is  based 
on  a  mistake,  that  crime,  pauperism  and  general  wretched 
ness  are  increasing  at  such  and  such  a  per  cent.,  and  that 
unless  the  whole  scheme  is  smashed  to  bits  and  made 
over  after  his  copyrighted  pattern  the  world  is  doomed 
and  every  enlightened  man  to  whom  he  has  talked  in  vain 
is  a  dastard  and  a  slave.  I  never  could  resist  statistics 
and  I  don't  like  anathemas.  May  I  have  another  roll, 
cousin  Eleanor  ?  There  is  consolation  in  one  of  your 
rolls  for  much  of  the  woe  of  life." 

"  I  wish  I  could  reach  across  the  table  to  shake  hands 
with  you,"  said  Mrs.  Hamill  solemnly. 

"  I'll  be  glad  to  come  around." 

"  Never  mind.  But  I  sympathize  with  your  feelings.  I 
have  suffered  in  the  same  way.  I  can't  pick  up  a  maga 
zine  without  coming  upon  people  who  want  to  reform  re 
ligion  or  dress  or  politics  or  government  or  human  nature. 
It  always  works  the  wrong  way  with  me.  It  makes  me 
feel  like  taking  a  vow  to  get  my  religion  straight  from  the 
creeds,  and  the  most  binding  creeds  that  can  be  found  or 
invented,  and  to  wear  gowns  that  would  make  a  dress-re 
former  die  of  sheer  envy.  To  be  sure  I  can't,  because 
such  gowns  cost  too  much,  and  I  generally  have  to  be 
sensible  because  it  is  most  economical,  but  I  always  put 
on  the  sensible  dress  with  an  inward  protest  and  a  deep 
desire  to  tell  everybody  who  praises  it  that  I  wear  it  be 
cause  I  have  to,  but  I  would  dearly  like  to  wear  a  train 
and  pretty  shoes  with  high  heels." 

"That's  because  she  really  ought  to  have  been  born  in 
the  dark  ages  and  got  into  this  century  by  some  mistake," 
explained  the  Professor. 

"  If  worst  comes  to  worst,  Mr.  Rodman,  and  you   have 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  gi 

to  set  up  as  a  reformer  or  philanthropist,  you  won't  forget 
to  let  me  know,  will  you  ?  I  haven't  a  single  professional 
philanthropist  on  my  list  of  acquaintances,  and,  the  way 
the  world  is  going  now,  I  really  feel  that  it  is  not  quite 
respectable  not  to  have  at  least  one  philanthropist  and 
two  reformers  and  a  sprinkling  of  inquiring  minds  about, 
so  as  to  sort  of  give  me  an  atmosphere,  you  know." 

"  I  am  very  glad  you  mentioned  it.  Does  it  make  any 
difference  at  all  what  reform  I  adopt  ?  " 

"  Oh,  not  in  the  least.  Only  you  must  be  very  much 
in  earnest  and  talk  about  your  '  cause,'  and  you  must  de 
spise  and  scoff  at  everybody  who  doesn't  believe  in  the 
same  thing." 

"  And  if  you  want  to  make  converts,  Paul,  you  must 
believe  something  hard,  and  the  harder  it  is  to  believe, 
the  harder  you  must  believe  it,"  added  Miss  Estee. 

"A  pleasant  future  you  are  all  outlining  for  me.  You  will 
bring  me  to  the  point  of  taking  up  the  Rodman  Works  on 
the  theory  that  it  must  be  my  duty  because  I  don't  want 
to,  and  that  I  might  as  well  be  out  of  the  fashion  as  to 
neglect  a  duty.  And  here  I  have  'been  retailing  my  woes 
with  the  secret  hope  that  some  friend  would  insist  I  should 
let  duty  go  or  my  health  would  suffer." 

"  He  would  hardly  be  a  friend,"  said  Joyce  in  a  low 
tone. 

"  You  are   one  of   them,  then  ?     I    rather  suspected  it." 

"  One  of  what  ?  "  demanded  Dru. 

"  One  of  the  conscientious  moderns  who  won't  let  a  man 
be  irresponsible." 

Joyce  did  not  answer,  but  she  looked  up  at  him  with  a 
serious  intensity  that  made  him  glad  when  Miss  Estee 
rose.  Somehow  he  didn't  want  the  other  people  to  see 
that  look, — though  they  were  undoubtedly  deserving 
people,  too. 

They  went  out  to  the  veranda,  where  the  light  of  the 


92  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

evening  was  still  soft  and  tender,  and  by  common  consent 
they  dropped  the  serious  tone  of  the  conversation. 

"  What  an  uncommonly  nice  boy  he  is,"  said  Mrs.  Ham- 
ill  in  an  undertone,  as  the  four  young  people  sauntered 
down  into  the  garden  and  left  their  elders  in  the  shadow 
of  the  Virginia  creepers. 

"  Yes,  isn't  he  ?  "  echoed  her  husband. 

"  '  My  face  is  my  fortune,  sir,  she  said,' "  murmured  Miss 
Estee.  "  I'm  fond  of  Paul  myself,  but  I  wonder  some 
times  whether  he  will  ever  outgrow  his  face.  He  will  al 
ways  be  the  uncommonly  nice  boy  for  his  acquaintances, 
and  the  chances  are  that  his  patronizing  friends  will 
never  discover  what  an  uncommonly  staunch  man  there 
is  back  of  that  boyish  face." 

"  But  everybody  must  like  him  the  better  for  it,"  ex 
claimed  Dru.  "People  are  so  much  more  agreeable  when 
they  don't  look  oppressively  wise." 

"That's  just  it,"  said  Miss  Estee.  "At  the  table  we 
were  all  giving  him  advice.  Did  you  notice  it  ?  We  all 
assumed  that  we  were  more  competent  to  judge  what  he 
should  do  than  he.  We  wouldn't  think  of  giving  Stephen 
Hale  advice,  for  instance." 

"  Goodness  gracious,  I  should  think  not !  I  would 
sooner  think  of  giving  advice  to  the  ghost  of  Solomon 
himself." 

"  I  have  a  great  admiration  for  Mr.  Hale,"  said  the 
Professor.  "  You  don't  have  to  change  your  mind  about 
him." 

"  Oh,  yes,  that's  Rob's  way,"  cried  his  wife.  "  He  does 
have  the  absurdest  affinities.  You  wouldn't  think  it  to 
look  at  him,  but  when  we  go  traveling,  for  instance,  it  is 
his  greatest  delight  to  get  off  with  the  stokers  and  engi 
neers  and  traveling  bunco-steerers  and  have  a  genuine 
flow  of  soul." 

"  Do  you  mean  me  to  draw  the  logical  deduction  that 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  93 

Mr.  Hale  is  of  the  bunco-steerer  variety  ?  "  asked  the  Pro 
fessor  serenely,  undisconcerted  by  her  personal  remarks. 

"I  wasn't v  trying  to  draw  logical  deductions,  Robby. 
Dear  me,  I  wouldn't  think  of  doing  anything  so  high- 
sounding.  I  was  jest  plain  talkin'." 

Out  in  the  garden  where  the  young  people  were  revolv 
ing  about  the  flower-beds,  Edith  was  scintillating  like  a 
firefly.  The  constraint  which  Hale  threw  upon  her  when 
alone  was  lifted  in  this  diffused  atmosphere.  She  called 
Paul  by  his  first  name, — hadn't  they  known  each  other  as 
children  and  weren't  they  included  in  aunt  Eleanor's 
cousinship  ? — and  when  she  saw  Stephen's  face  darken  at 
it,  a  little  spark  crept  into  her  soft  eyes.  A  little  spark 
dropped  into  a  powder-keg  might  have  tremendous  ef 
fects.  Didn't  all  the  novelists  say  that  jealousy  is  a  meas 
ure  of  love?  It  might  be  a  good  thing  to  make  sure  of 
the  extent  of  Stephen's  devotion,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
fun  of  testing  this  mysterious  power  of  moving  people 
which  one  seems  to  possess  without  understanding  it  ! 
No  one  but  a  girl  knows  the  trembling  delight  there  is  in 
holding  the  spark  over  the  keg  and  thinking,  "Just  sup 
pose, — only  suppose,  of  course, — I  let  it  fall  !  " 

The  twilight  had  deepened,  and  here  and  there  a  glow 
worm  sent  out  a  gleam  of  illusive  light  from  the  tangled 
grass. 

"  Look  !  Look  !  "  cried  Edith.  "  There  it  is  !  Wait  a 
minute — see  !  Like  a  star  waking  out  of  a  nap  !  " 

They  waited  till  the  little  creature  glowed  again,  seem 
ing  to  illumine  the  shady  nook  of  grass  where  it  nestled. 

"  I  think  I  like  your  description  of  it  better  than  the 
thing  itself,"  said  Rodman.  "  I  have  seen  them  nearer, 
and  the  poetry  doesn't  hold  good." 

"But  this  view  is  as  true  as  the  nearer  one,"  said  Joyce. 

"  And  you'd  rather  think  of  it  as  being  like  a  star  ?  " 

"  Or  like  the  ideal,"  answered  Joyce  gayly.     "  You  get 


94  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

only  glimpses  of  it,  but  a  glimpse  is  enough  to  make  you 
hold  everything  else  cheap  beside  it." 

"That's  a  defiance,  Stephen,  realist  that  you  arc.  What 
have  you  to  say  for  yourself?" 

"I  accept  Miss  Mabie's  simile.  It  is  like  the  ideal, — be 
cause  it  leads  you  to  believe  it  is  something  wonderfully 
fine,  when  in  reality  there  is  only  a  worm  back  of  the 
light." 

"  Oh,  you  are  all  wrong,"  cried  Edith,  and  her  voice  was 
vibrating  with  excitement.  "I  will  tell  you  what  it  is  like. 
It  is  like  love,  which  is  a  paltry  thing,  as  you  know,  but 
which  yet  you  will  follow, — follow.  And  it  is  like  beauty," 
she  said,  lifting  a  hand  from  which  the  lace  sleeve  fell 
back  to  the  elbow.  She  was  a  step  in  advance,  and  she 
turned  her  face  back  to  them  with  a  sparkling  audacity 
that  thrilled  Joyce  as  keenly  as  it  did  the  two  men  who 
watched  her.  "  It  is  like  beauty,  which  is  all  illusion  as 
you  know— when  the  chase  is  over  !  But  you  follow  it  ! 
And  it  is  like  woman,  who  is  a  slight  thing,  Heaven  help 
her,  that  you  may  crush  under  your  heel  if  you  chance  to 
walk  across  the  grass  in  your  promenade, — but  a  pretty 
dance  she  leads  you  all  the  same,  my  fine  gentlemen  !  " 
She  looked  full  at  Hale  with  a  challenge  in  her  eyes, 
laughed  with  conscious,  wilful  mockery,  and  ran  swiftly 
toward  the  house. 

"  Edith  !  "  cried  Stephen  in  a  passionate  voice,  spring 
ing  toward  her,  and  following  as  though  the  white  face 
gleaming  tauntingly  through  the  dusk  were  indeed  a  light 
that  he  must  follow  whether  he  would  or  not.  But  it  was 
the  face  of  a  child  afraid  of  being  chidden  that  she  lifted 
when  he  overtook  her  at  the  foot  of  the  steps. 

"  Well  ?  "  she  said  under  her  breath.  There  was  no  de 
fiance  or  mockery  in  her  tone  now.  It  was  rather  the 
whisper  of  one  who  trembles  at  a  lifted  lash. 

He  had  caught  her  hand  and  stood  looking  down  upon 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  95 

her  with  bent  brows  and  quivering  nostrils,  his  eyes  beat 
ing  hers  down  fiercely.  Then  he  crushed  her  hand  and 
threw  it  from  him  and  turned  to  lean  against  the  post  of 
the  verandah,  and  would  not  look  again  at  her  where  she 
sat  on  the  lowest  step,  humming  a  snatch  of  a  song.  He 
felt  as  though  he  had  been  seized  and  shaken  by  something 
outside  of  himself.  He  did  not  understand  the  passion 
that  had  swept  him  from  his  usual  calm,  and  was  ashamed 
of  it  and  puzzled  over  it  even  while  he  still  felt  that  the 
one  desire  of  his  being  was  to  crush  her  between  his  hands 
until  the  defiance  died  out  of  those  eyes,— even  if  the 
light  died  out  with  it. 

Joyce  and  Rodman  had  been  left  behind  by  this  rapid 
flight. 

"  She  is  like  a  firefly  herself,"  Joyce  had  said  quickjy, 
looking  after  Edith  with  a  frank  admiration  not  un 
touched  with  wonder.  "  Wasn't  she,  when  she  flashed  off 
into  the  shadows  that  way  ?  Magnetic  and  elusive  and 
bewildering." 

"  Yes,"  he  said.  He  was  looking  at  her  with  a  quiet 
smile  and  trying  to  formulate  the  difference  between  the 
'two  girls.  "  Yes.  There  are  fireflies — and  stars."  The 
moment  the  words  had  passed  his  lips  he  regretted  them. 
They  sounded  tawdry,  addressed  to  her.  But  to  his 
relief  she  seemed  unconscious  of  any  personal  application. 

"  It  was  a  surprise  to  see  you  here.  I  did  not  know 
that  this  was  where  your  work  was." 

"  This  is  where  the  Rodman  Works  are." 

"  But  not  your  work  ?     Have  you  decided  it  ? " 

"  What  would  you  counsel  ?  "  he  asked. 

How  could  the  pupil  of  Karl  Bahrdt  answer,  if  not  seri 
ously  ? 

"  May  I  take  it  for  granted  that  the  chance  to  make 
money  would  not  be  the  measure  of  success  for  you?" 
she  asked  without  lifting  her  eyes. 


96  APPRENTICES   TO  DESTINY. 

He  felt  the  little  quiver  of  effort  in  her  voice  and  it 
kept  him  from  smiling. 

"  Yes,  you  may  take  that  for  granted,  for  the  time 
being." 

"  Then, — why  will  you  not  take  an  opportunity  to  do 
something  really  worth  while, — something  for  the  good  of 
the  race  ?" 

"  But  what  can  I  do  ? "  he  asked  gravely.  "  I  can't 
clutch  society  by  the  throat  and  say,  '  Give  me  something 
heroic  to  do  or  I'll  be  the  death  of  you.'  Society  would 
probably  clap  me  into  a  madhouse  and  not  even  dream  of 
me.  Besides,  heroic  things  are  not  in  my  line.  They  are 
too  apt  to  mean  hard  work." 

She  would  not  be  turned  aside. 

"You  can  show  how  a  capitalist, — an  employer, — ought 
to  deal  with  the  men  he  uses  so  as  to  make  their  life  a 
blessing  to  them  instead  of  the  curse  it  often  is  now.  Oh, 
if  I  were  a  man,  there  would  be  no  other  work  possible 
for  me.  I  would  consider  it  a  crusade.  I  would  leave 
everything,  the  world,  fame,  wealth,  everything,  for  the 
one  thing  that  is  worth  them  all,  a  life  in  which  the  real 
and  not  the  factitious  should  be  the  standard,  a  life  which 
would  not  be  for  my  own  advantage  or  advancement,  but 
for  the  advancement,  to  however  slight  a  degree,  of 
humanity." 

"  You  are  so  sure,"  he  said  slowly.  "  I  envy  your 
enthusiasm,  because  I  am  not  sure  that  your  enthusiasm, 
even  in  a  mistaken  cause,  would  not  lead  to  more  good 
than  my  deliberation  and. doubt." 

"  It  is  not  a  mistaken  cause,"  she  exclaimed.  "  If  once 
you  admit  that  we  must  not  live  for  ourselves,  it  is  the 
only  justifiable  course,  and  all  search  for  mere  happiness 
in  living  is  just  self-indulgence." 

"  Oh,  but  do  you  think  happiness  in  itself  is  wrong  ?  " 
he  protested. 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  97 

"Yes.     By  itself  !     At  least,  very  apt  to  be." 

"  Why,  I  never  am  happier  in  my  life  than  when  I  am 
at  my  work, — just  on  the  trail  of  finding  out  something 
about  life  in  its  lowest  forms,  you  know.  And  don't  ani 
mals  do  all  that  is  required  of  them  in  merely  living,  and 
aren't  they  happy  at  it  ?  I  am  not  going  to  believe  that 
I  have  any  less  right  to  the  largess  of  nature  than  any 
of  her  other  children,  or  that  I  am  not  filling  my  place  in 
the  scheme  best  and  most  harmoniously  when  I  am  hap 
piest." 

She  threw  out  her  hand  with  a  scornful  gesture.  "  So 
the  drunkard  may  say  when  he  turns  again  to  the  wine 
that  has  become  his  ideal  of  happiness.  So  the  veriest 
idler  in  the  world  may  say,  and  with  as  good  arguments, 
when  he  shirks  all  duties  that  he  may  give  himself  up  to 
the  delicate  indulgences  of  self  which  take  from  him  even 
the  power  of  comprehending  what  real  living  means." 

"  After  that  I  hardly  have  courage  left  to  make  further 
suggestions,  but  I  would  like  to  intimate,  under  submis 
sion,  that  it  makes  a  difference  what  the  indulgences  are. 
One  rule  won't  work  in  all  cases.  I'm  not  sure  but  that, 
when  we  children  of  humanity  get  through  growing,  if 
that  undesirable  day  should  ever  come,  it  will  be  found 
that  to  live  in  accordance  with  the  demands  of  one's  own 
special  nature,  that  is,  the  supremest  self-indulgence,  is 
the  only  right  and  harmonious  and  helpful  thing." 

She  looked  rather  dashed.  "  I  know  that  is  sophistry," 
she  said  at  last,  "though  I  can't  say  just  where  you  are 
wrong.  At  least  you  won't  claim  we  have  reached  that 
point  yet  ?  " 

"  No,  perhaps  not.  I  won't  argue  with  you  about  it," 
he  said,  watching  her  with  a  smile.  In  fact  he  had  much 
less  interest  in  convincing  her  than  in  seeing  the  earnest 
ness  with  which  she  carried  her  Puritan  standards.  The 
standards  couldn't  be  very  far  wrong — when  defended  by 


98  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

such  lips.  Who  can  say  what  it  is  that  makes  a  young 
man  pass  by  a  hundred  maidens,  all  of  whom  are  sweet 
and  lovely  and  each  of  whom  may  make  the  glory  of 
some  man's  life,  and  note  of  each  that  she  is  sweet  and 
lovely,  yet  noting  pass  on  and  heed  no  more,  while  when 
one  comes,  though  she  may  not  be  as  fair  as  others,  or 
though  she  be  wilful  and  defiant,  straight  he  knows  that 
she  is  to  him  what  no  one  else  has  ever  been  and  that 
here  it  is  not  for  him  to  note  and  question  and  debate  but 
only  to  yield  to  the  harmony  of  her  presence  and  wait  for 
her  to  come  to  share  that  recognition  ?  Paul  Rodman 
did  not  know  that  he  was  yielding  to  a  power  which  would 
grow  until  it  should  come  to  seem  the  one  thing  in  the 
world  fixed  in  the  midst  of  change  and  true  in  the  midst 
of  illusions.  He  only  knew  that  no  other  girl  had  ever 
talked  to  him  in  that  way. and  that  to  no  one  else  would 
he  have  made  such  answers. 

"  But  the  question  isn't  abstract  or  hypothetical,"  she 
said,  glad  to  get  back  to  something  solid.  "  It  is  just 
this  ;  whether  you  will  carry  on  the  Works  to  make  a  for 
tune,  as  Mr.  Hale  said,  or  whether  you  will  sell  them  be 
cause  you  don't  want  to  be  bothered  with  real  work,  or 
whether  you  will  use  them  to  bring  about  the  happiness 
and  blessing  and  advancement  of  a  hundred  fami 
lies." 

"  Have  you  that  faith  in  my  latent  powers  ?  "  he  asked 
quietly,  but  something  like  a  spark  had  leaped  into  his 
eyes.  "Well,  if  I  go  down  into  the  world  of  action  to  see 
whether  you  are  a  true  prophet  or  not,  I  hope  you  will 
remember  that  the  responsibility  of  the  expedition  rests 
upon  you." 

"  Oh,  no,  that  is  not  fair." 

"  Oh,  yes,  it  is.  If  I  fizzle  and  go  out  like  a  poor  fire 
cracker,  I  want  it  to  be  understood  who  lit  me  and  threw 
me  in  tne  grass." 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  99 

She  made  a  gesture  of  impatient  repudiation,  but  he 
went  on  with  placid  persistency. 

"  I  want  it  understood,  also,  just  what  this  quest  of 
yours  is  going  to  cost  me.  Ease,  comfort,  all  the  repu 
tation  for  idleness  which  I  have  been  building  up  for  twen 
ty-seven  years,  personal  ambitions  and  enthusiasms,  and 
all  the  things  that  I  have  meant  to  learn  in  years  to  come, 
— all  must  be  cast  into  the  crucible  and  melted  like  dross. 
Oh,  you  needn't  think  I  am  going  to  let  you  forget  an 
atom  of  it." 

He  was  smiling  lightly,  but  her  eyes  fell  and  she  was 
glad  that  they  had  at  last,  in  their  slow  sauntering, 
reached  the  steps  of  the  veranda  and  so  she  need  not 
answer. 

Then  suddenly,  sharp  and  clear  across  the  stillness  of 
the  evening,  a  pistol-shot  rang  out.  The  women  started 
and  the  men  leaped  to  their  feet,  and  all  turned  startled 
faces  toward  the  sound.  It  had  been  so  sudden  and  so 
near. 

"Boys,  probably,"  said  the  Professor  instinctively. 

There  was  a  minute  of  silence,  and  then  the  sound  of 
men  running  in  the  street. 

"  I'm  going  to  see,"  said  Hale,  and  he  went  off. 

The  Professor  and  Rodman  longed  to  go,  but  being 
chivalrously  bound  to  stay  by  the  women  their  inclinations 
only  carried  them  to  the  foot  of  the  walk  where  they 
stood  peering  out  into  the  shadowy  distance.  The  moon 
lit  the  street  in  irregular  patches  and  any  dim  corner 
might  be  a  lurking-place.  But  the  disturbed  stillness  of 
the  night  settled  back  and  they  were  about  to  return  to 
the  house  when  they  simultaneously  caught  sight  of  a  tall 
figure  which  had  appeared  from  nowhere  and  was  unmis 
takably  trying  to  skulk  away  across  the  lower  end  of  Miss 
Estee's  lawn.  It  was  a  man  stooping  and  running  in  the 
shadow  of  the  lilac  bushes  that  formed  a  hedge  there, 


IOO  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY, 

and  the  shadows  of  the  bushes  and  of  the  scattered  clouds 
had  helped  to  cover  his  retreat.  Both  Rodman  and  the 
Professor  gave  chase,  and  when  the  man  saw  he  was  de 
tected  he  straightened  himself  up  and  made  a  break  for 
the  alley  that  skirted  the  farther  end  of  the  lawn.  Paul 
was  after  him  like  a  flash,  but  a  moment  later  the  Professor 
cried  warningly  ! 

"  Rodman  !     Rodman,  stop  ! " 

At  the  voice  of  authority  Rodman  pulled  up  abruptly, 
and  then  it  was  too  late  to  attempt  again  to  follow,  for 
the  man  had  disappeared. 

"  What  in  the  world  did  you  call  me  off  for  ?  "  he  de 
manded. 

"  Because  I —     It's  all  right.     There  was  some  mistake." 

"A  mistake  to  let  him  escape,  I  should  think.  It 
wouldn't  have  been  hard  for  him  to  clear  himself  if  there 
was  any  other  mistake.  There  may  have  been  murder 
done." 

"  No,  there  has  been  no  murder.  Or,  if  there  has,  it 
was  justifiable." 

"  Justifiable  ? "  repeated  Paul  with  an  astonished  look  at 
the  staid  Professor. 

"  I'll  explain.  Only  don't  say  a  word  now,  or  give  a 
hint,  especially  before  Hale.  Be  dumb." 

The  women  had  clustered  together,  waiting  their  re 
turn,  and  Hale  was  with  them. 

"  What  was  it  ?  Did  you  see  any  one  ?  "  they  demanded 
in  a  breath. 

"  We  thought  we  saw  a  man,  and  so  we  ran,"  said  the 
Professor,  calmly.  "  What  was  it,  Hale  ?  " 

"  A  horse  was  shot  in  Mr.  Twitchell's  stables,"  said 
Hale. 

"  Who  shot  him  ?  " 

"  Nobody  knows.  At  least,  I  didn't  find  anyone  who 
knew.  I  came  back  to  relieve  your  minds." 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  JOI 

"  And  is  that  all  ? "  asked  Rodman. 

"  That's  enough  for  Hereward,  "  exclaimed  Hale  indig 
nantly.  "  It  was  a  rascally  thing  to  do.  Personal  spite, 
I  suppose.  The  horse  was  a  valuable  one, — a  racer." 

"Oh,"  said  the  Professor  suddenly.  "  Was  it  that  hand 
some  gray  that  ran  at  the  county  fair  yesterday  ?  I  saw 
him.  Twitchell  himself  rode  and  lashed  him  savagely. 
He  lost  the  race,  though." 

A  neighbor,  seeing  the  group,  stopped  at  the  gate  to  ex 
plain. 

"  It  was  Twitchell's  gray,  that  lost  the  race  yesterday. 
Twitchell  is  a  brute  with  horses, — blamed  if  he  isn't. 
They  say  he  beat  the  gray  over  the  head  with  the  butt 
end  of  his  whip  yesterday,  and  when  he  was  beaten  any 
how  he  was  that  riled  at  losing  the  race  that  he  let  the 
horse  lay  blind  and  lame  and  half-killed,  in  his  stables  all 
day  without  seeing  to  him.  Blamed  if  it  wasn't  an  act  of 
mercy  to  shoot  the  poor  beast." 

"  That  doesn't  make  it  any  less  unlawful,"  said  Hale  se 
verely. 

"  Well, — I  dunno  as  it  does,"  said  the  neighbor  respect 
fully.  Hale's  opinion  always  carried  weight. 

But  the  Professor  had  fallen  behind  with  Paul  to  re 
mark  sotto  voce, 

"  I  told  you  it  would  be  justifiable  murder.  But  Hale 
mustn't  suspect." 

"  But  who  was  it  ? " 

"  Our  Hereward  gadfly,  Ben  Baily." 


X. 

RODMAN  had  promptly  determined,  when  the  formal 
announcement  of  his  inheritance  had  first  reached  him 
from  Hale,  to  sell  the  property  as  a  matter  of  course,  and 
as  soon  as  possible.  A  forced  sale  might  mean  a  sacri 
fice,  and  to  a  man  of  his  very  modest  fortune,  this  could 
not  be  a  matter  of  entire  indifference.  But  any  interrup 
tion  to  his  career  would  be  of  greater  moment,  he 
thought.  The  foundations  of  this  resolution  had  been 
gradually  wearing  away  under  the  combined  force  of 
pressure  from  without  and  some  awakening  within  to  the 
responsibilities  of  ownership,  and  when  he  went  down  to 
the  Works  the  morning  after  his  arrival  in  Hereward,  it 
was  with  a  curious  uncertainty  in  his  own  mind  as  to 
whether  he  was  viewing  the  scene  of  his  future  labors  or 
whether  he  was  looking  upon  a  rather  cumbersome  piece 
of  property  which  he  might  find  more  difficulty  in  dispos 
ing  of  than  he  would  like. 

He  found  an  established  business,  with  a  multiplicity 
of  details  that  seemed  bewildering  to  his  uninitiated  eyes, 
and  a  couple  of  hundred  men  who  watched  him  askance 
with  a  curious  regard  that  embarrassed  him.  The  idea 
that  he  was  the  employer  and  to  some  extent  the  control 
ler  of  these  men  gave  him  a  new  sensation.  The  relation 
was  not  as  simple  as  the  one  he  had  heretofore  borne  tow 
ard  his  fellow-creatures.  He  was  not  sure  that  he  could 
come  to  find  it  even  tolerable.  But  he  conscientiously 
went  through  the  different  departments  and  listened  to 
the  account  of  the  foreman,  who  was  nervously  anxious 


APPREN7ICES  TO  DESTINY.  103 

to  make  a  good  impression.  When  the  tour  was  over  he 
admitted  to  himself,  seriously  enough,  that  the  establish 
ment  offered  a  much  more  complicated  problem  than  any 
with  which  he  had  struggled  in  the  laboratory,  and,  what 
was  worse,  it  was  all  drearily  commonplace.  Then  he 
reproached  himself  for  that  thought,  looking  at  the  men 
who  lived  in  it  and  had  to  keep  on  living  in  it  without 
choice,  and  he  tried  to  pull  himself  together,  and  view  it 
as  a  duty  which  had  been  tossed  into  his  hands.  It  was 
evident  that  the  Works  took  it  for  granted  he  was  going 
to  adopt  them. 

He  was  considering  on  his  way  up  the  street,  after  the 
twelve  o'clock  whistle  had  released  the  men,  how  far 
individual  fate  is  controlled  in  this  world  by  the  opinions 
of  us  which  other  people  take  for  granted,  when  he  fell  in 
with  Professor  Hamill. 

"  It  would  be  a  little  difficult  to  say,"  the  Professor  hes 
itated,  when  Rodman  maliciously  put  the  question  to  him. 
But  though  he  was  wise  enough  to  fear  a  rash  generaliza 
tion  he  was  not  without  resources,  for  he  added,  with  a 
funny  little  air  of  elation  over  his  own  adroitness,  "We 
might  try  a  practical  experiment.  For  instance,  I  take  it 
for  granted  that  you  are  going  to  come  in  with  me,  since 
we  are  at  my  door.  This  is  where  I  live,  as  I  hope  you 
will  come  to  know  well  enough.  Now,  what  effect  is  my 
opinion  going  to  have  on  your  course  of  action  ?" 

"  I  am  coming  in,"  Paul  answered  gravely,  "  but  that 
doesn't  prove  anything,  because  you  don't  know  how  far 
I  am  obeying  my  own  inclinations  in  doing  so." 

He  wondered,  with  a  sudden  bound  of  interest,  whether 
he  would  find  Miss  Mabie  here,  but  it  was  Mrs.  Hamill 
alone  who  met  them. 

"  How  is  the  philanthropic  wind  this  morning?"  she 
asked  gaily. 

"  Due  east.    I  have  been  spending  the  entire  morning  at 


IO4  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

the  Works,  trying  to  see  whether  there  was  anything  there 
which  stood  in  pressing  need  of  my  administrative  care." 

"  What  did  you  find  ?  " 

"  Why,  nothing.  I  felt  rather  defrauded  that  every 
thing  should  be  running  smoothly  and  satisfactorily." 

"  You  may  find  that  all  the  workmen  do  not  agree  with 
you,"  said  the  Professor. 

"  Why  ?     Is  there  any  disturbance  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know  just  what  it  amounts  to.  You  will  prob 
ably  find  out  in  time.  But  there  is  a  workingman's  club 
here,  which  seems  to  have  drawn  in  the  more  ardent  and 
hot-headed  of  the  men.  They  have  weekly  meetings, 
debates  and  discussions.  I  have  attended  occasionally. 
They  were  very  interesting,  but  it  struck  me  they  were 
not  always  wisely  directed.  Their  leader,  a  man  by  the 
name  of  Mason,  might  be  a  dangerous  man  if  the  circum 
stances  abetted." 

Rodman  looked  rather  startled,  and  Mrs.  Hamill  broke 
in  impetuously  : 

"  There,  that  is  what  comes  of  it  all.  The  people  here 
used  to  have  innocent  spelling-matches  and  sociables  and 
sings,  before  your  precious  reformers  came  and  stirred 
them  up." 

"  And  taught  them  to  see  that  life  is  real,  life  is  ear 
nest,  and  that  it  is  much  more  important  a  man  should 
know  what  his  rights  are  and  make  sure  they  are  duly 
respected  than  that  he  should  know  how  to  spell  polysyl 
labic  words  which  he  would  never  use  except  as  missiles 
with  which  to  overcome  some  opponent  in  the  ortho 
graphical  combats,  while  his  sweetheart  looked  on." 

"  Rob,  what  was  the  name  of  that  man  who  came  up 
from  Chicago  and  set  them  off  ? " 

"  Is  the  feminine  judgment  going  to  hold  that  one  poor 
man  responsible  for  the  doings  of  the  entire  club  ?" 

"  But  what  was  his  name  ?     I  don't  care  if  you  do  say 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY,  10$ 

it  is  feminine,  I  want  to  have  things  definite  and  personal. 
I  don't  see  why  the  feminine  way  should  be  apologized 
for,  anyhow.  Who  knows  but  what  it  is  as  good  as  any 
other  ?  There  isn't  any  absolute  standard." 

"  No,  there  isn't  any  absolute  standard.  His  name  was 
Karl  Bahrdt." 

"  Oh,  I  know  him,"  cried  Rodman,  with  surprise.  "  It 
can't  be  very  bad  if  he  is  in  it." 

"  He  isn't  in  it.  From  what  I  hear  of  him,  it  might  be 
a  good  deal  better  if  he  were.  But  he  only  sowed  the 
seed,  and  the  crop  depends  somewhat  on  the  gardener's 
knowledge  of  what  is  wheat  and  what  is  weeds.  With  an 
ardent  but  amateurish  gardener,  the  result  may  be  uncer 
tain.  Hereward  has  always  rather  felt  the  ignominy  of 
being  a  small  town  in  a  century  which  measures  things 
by  quantity,  and  the  workmen  may  have  thought  they 
had  it  in  their  power  to  remove  the  stigma.  They  have 
had  meetings  and  have  appointed  committees  and  had 
orators  come  down  from  the  city,  and  they  probably  feel 
that  they  are  going  to  be  a  power  in  the  land  in  some 
way  or  another.  Just  what  they  want  to  bring  about  I 
don't  know.  They  are  discontented  and  in  a  state  of  fer 
ment.  They  feel  that  their  lot  does  not  please  them,  and 
as  everybody  else  in  the  world  is  entirely  pleased  and 
content  with  the  conditions  to  which  Providence  has 
assigned  him,  it  naturally  follows  that  there  must  be 
something  peculiarly  unpleasant  about  the  corner  in 
which  they  find  themselves,  and  that  being  the  case  they 
are  going  to  protest." 

"  I  didn't  realize  that  it  was  so  much  of  a  live  issue," 
said  Rodman.  "  I  have  always  skipped  the  reports  of 
strikes  in  the  newspapers,  and  I  suppose  my  Nemesis 
would  consequently  delight  in  tumbling  one  about  my 
ears.  Is  there  anything  tangible  in  their  demands  ?  Are 
they  insufficiently  paid  ?" 


Io6  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"  He  is  ready  to  be  a  reformer,"  groaned  Mrs.  Hamill. 
"  I  suspected  it  from  the  first.  I  can't  cut  you,  because 
you  know  so  few  people  here,  and  you  will  soon  know  so 
many  less  that  it  would  be  clear  cruelty  to  refuse  to 
recognize  you." 

"That  would  be  clear  cruelty  under  any  circum 
stances." 

"  If  it  wouldn't  be  interfering  too  recklessly  with  the 
wider  interests  of  humanity  at  large,"  the  Professor 
remarked  gently,  "  I  would  like  to  suggest  that  I  ought  to 
have  some  luncheon  before  I  go  back  to  teach  my  young 
charges  that  law  governs  everything,  and  that  obedience 
to  law  and  a  recognition  of  the  ruling  principle  in  things 
is  the  first  mark  of  a  sane  mind.  I  wouldn't  mention  it, 
only  I  know  you  would  be  sorry,  after  I  had  gone,  if  you 
happened  to  remember  that  I  hadn't  had  anything  to 
eat." 

"  Oh,  Rob,  is  it  so  late  ?  I'm  a  dreadful  housekeeper, 
am  I  not  ?  But  you  like  me,  don't  you,  even  if  I  do  forget 
about  having  luncheon  ready  ?  " 

"  Oh,  yes,  that  is  a  habit  I  have  fallen  into,  and  it  has 
nothing  to  do  with  the  merits  of  the  case.  Mr.  Rodman, 
have  your  socialistic  impulses  developed  far  enough  to 
lead  you  to  share  the  fare  of  a  starving  laborer  ?  " 

But  Rodman  was  obliged  yto  plead  an  engagement  with 
Miss  Estee. 

The  situation  seemed  growing  more  serious  through  all 
this,  and  the  thought  of  it  lingered  in  his  mind  through 
the  more  or  less  frivolous  pursuits  of  the  rest  of  the  day. 
He  went  about  gathering  up  old  threads,  and  he  found  a 
new  pleasure  in  discovering  that  he  was  remembered  in 
this  little  corner  of  the  world  and  that  it  was  taken  for 
granted  he  had  a  right  and  a  place  here.  The  possiblity 
of  living  his  life  out  here  began  to  have  a  different  look 
from  what  it  had  had  when  viewed  from  across  the  Atlantic. 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  10/ 

He  waited  for  the  evening  before  visiting  the  old  recluse 
and  astronomer,  Jefferson,  whose  mysterious  personality 
had  filled  his  boyish  imagination  with  dreams.  The  old 
house  had  lost  somewhat  in  the  matter  of  impressiveness, 
and  the  gate  that  guarded  the  entrance  was  only  an  ordi 
nary  gate  instead  of  the  bar  to  the  Mysteries  which  it  had 
been  of  old.  The  darkness  of  night  had  followed  the 
rose-flush  of  evening,  and  under  the  trees  the  shadows  lay 
heavily.  The  hedges  were  a  dark  line  that  he  descried 
only  as  something  that  hemmed  him  about.  The  loosened 
fragrance  of  the  apple-blossoms,  never  so  sweet  as  when 
the  dew  distills  it,  floated  down  about  him,  and  the  trees 
bent  their  old  branches  down  to  his  face.  He  smiled  to 
think  how  august  they  had  seemed  when  only  their 
shadows  were  within  his  reach. 

The  old  housekeeper,  who  answered  his  knock  with  an 
air  of  surprise  and  took  his  name  doubtingly,  came  back 
in  time  with  a  message  requesting  him  to  go  up  the  old 
way  to  the  turret  room. 

He  knew  the  way  to  the  stairs,  which  he  had  boyishly 
fancied  must  be  like  the  dark  and  narrow  way  that  initi 
ates  into  the  mysteries  of  the  pyramids  had  had  to  trav 
erse.  They  were  narrow  and  steep  still,  but  the  glamor  of 
mystery  was  gone.  He  reflected  that  this  was  a  part  of 
the  price  one  must  pay  for  the  privilege  of  growing  old. 
At  the  top  he  came  suddenly  out  upon  the  little  turret 
room  that  gave  character  to  the  house.  Then  he  forgot 
to  think  of  himself,  for  over  him  the  sky  was  arched, 
with  all  the  stars  shining  down  upon  him  through  the 
darkness.  Beneath  him  lay  the  garden,  with  its  roof  of 
apple-blossoms  at  his  feet.  The  village  stretched  away 
beyond,  dark  and  indistinct  save  for  here  and  there  a  roof 
growing  out  of  the  shadows,  and  over  his  head  the  stars 
came  close,  as  though  he  stood  on  the  deck  of  a  ship. 
The  air  between  seemed  to  pulse  with  the  light  they  shed, 


108  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

and  the  blue  patches  of  sky  were  deep  with  the  nearest 
approach  to  the  infinite  which  comes  within  human  reach. 

The  translation  from  the  tender  dark  of  the  garden  to 
this  luminous  calm  was  startlingly  abrupt,  but  a  moment 
later  Mr.  Jefferson  came  forward  from  the  shadows  of 
the  wall,  and  the  human  equilibrium  was  restored. 

"  You  see  I  claim  the  privilege  of  age  in  asking  my 
guests  to  come  to  me,"  he  said  with  a  stately  courtesy, 
extending  a  delicate,  cold  hand.  "  Miss  Mabie  has 
honored  me  by  coming  to  my  tower." 

Paul  had  at  once  discovered  the  young  girl  who  sat 
before  the  telescope,  and  at  the  first  glance  something 
swifter  and  surer  than  sight  had  told  him  who  it  was. 
He  was  very  glad  he  had  come.  Miss  Mabie  bent  her 
head  slightly,  but  turned  her  face  away  again  to  the  night 
as  if  to  decline  any  share  in  the  conversation. 

"  I  hoped  you  would  let  me  come  up,"  Rodman  said. 
"  I  wanted  to  see  it  as  I  remembered  it, — a  place  apart, 
with  the  world  of  men  shut  out." 

The  old  man  leaned  toward  him,  studying  his  face  in 
the  dim  light  of  the  stars  with  a  curious,  half-cynical 
smile. 

"And  you  have  been  spending  your  time  since  you  left 
me  last  in  seeing  the  world  of  men,  I  suppose.  That 
means  wandering  over  the  globe  and  looking  at  its  cities 
and  its  ruins  of  older  cities  and  its  people  who  will  make 
cities  to  be  ruined  in  turn.  Well,  what  have  you  found 
out  about  it  ?" 

"  Very  little,"  Paul  confessed  gaily. 

"  Yet  you  are  going  back  to  it?  " 

"  Why,  what  else  can  I  do,  since  I  am  not  the  happy 
possessor  of  a  tower  ? " 

"  You  will  never  find  reality  there,"  the  old  man  said. 
There  was  a  hint  of  scorn  under  his  dispassionate  tone. 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  ICX) 

"  The  world  of  men  is  a  Babel  of  discordant  cries.  The 
only  virtue  of  the  tower  is  that  it  shuts  men  out." 

Perhaps  it  was  the  force  of  contrast  only,  but  there 
came  to  Rodman's  mind  a  swift  thought  of  the  men  he 
had  seen  in  the  morning,  struggling  with  the  only  reality 
their  lives  knew,  and  the  reflection  woke  a  feeling  of 
championship  for  them  in  his  heart.  With  the  high 
appreciation  of  humanity  which  is  one  of  the  forms  of 
modern  thought,  though  it  may  not  yet  have  precipitated 
into  habits  of  action,  he  resented  the  solitary's  disdainful 
exclusiveness. 

"  Poor  humanity  !  "  he  said  lightly.  "  It  is  shut  out  on 
one  side  and  shut  in  on  another,  and  there  doesn't  seem 
to  be  very  much  room  for  it  anywhere." 

"  Men  jar,"  the  recluse  answered  frowningly,  as  though 
he  might  have  pointed  a  near  example.  "  They  jar  upon 
me,  with  their  eagerness  and  passion.  The  stars  are  bet 
ter  company.  Look  yonder  !  Through  the  depths  of 
space,  to  the  very  limit  of  thought  and  then  as  far  be 
yond,  they  wheel  together  in  harmony  so  perfect  that  not 
one  atom  swerves  from  its  place  or  leads  another  astray, 
in  obedience  to  law  so  implicit  that  not  for  the  thou 
sandth  part  of  a  second  does  one  waver  from  its  path. 
That  is  the  law  of  numbers — of  harmony.  On  that  the 
universe  is  founded.  I  claim  it  is  better  worth  while  to 
study  and  reflect  that  law  than  to  add  to  the  discord  by 
joining  the  clamor  of  my  voice  to  the  clamorous  voices  of 
the  multitude." 

Paul  reflected  that  it  would  hardly  be  becoming  to 
argue  with  a  man  old  enough  to  be  his  grandfather  upon 
the  wisdom  of  his  course,  so  he  kept  silence.  But  he 
stole  a  glance  at  Miss  Mabie.  She  was  listening,  with 
her  hands  clasped  idly  before  her,  but  her  face  was  in  the 
shadow. 

But  apparently  the  desire  of  expression,  if  not  of  justi- 


HO  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTIiVY. 

fication,  had  fallen  on  the  solitary  old  man.  He  had 
walked  away  to  the  low  wall  that  formed  one  part  of  the 
turret  room,  and  leaning  his  folded  arms  upon  the  ledge 
he  leaned  out  and  looked  down  on  the  village  which 
stretched  below  him,  embowered  in  trees  and  idealized  by 
starlight.  It  was  long  since  its  streets  had  been  familiar 
to  him. 

"  With  their  strife  they  have  broken  the  law,"  he  said 
accusingly.  "With  their  bitterness,  their  hatred,  their 
greed,  they  are  breaking  the  law  every  day  that  they  live. 
You  cannot  deny  it.  Is  there  a  spot  in  the  whole  world 
where  the  air  is  not  heavy  with  the  breath  of  warfare  ? 
This  is  a  peaceful  scene,  you  are  thinking.  The  dwell 
ings  which  you  are  looking  at,  under  the  glorified  sheen 
of  the  stars,  are  beautiful,  and  they  must  be  the  sanctua 
ries  of  peace  and  the  domestic  virtues,  you  would  say. 
Oh,  I  have  heard  the  talk  with  which  you  flatter  each 
other.  Well,  go  through  these  streets  to-morrow  and  you 
will  see  men  who  spend  their  lives  hating  each  other  and 
striving  to  wrest  some  advantage  from  each  other. 
Among  the  men  who  go  up  to  those  shops  of  yours,  is 
there  one  in  a  hundred  who  does  not  feel  that  he  is 
wronged  by  the  necessity  of  labor  laid  upon  him  ?  Is 
there  one  who  would  not  long  to  possess  himself  of  that 
wealth  which  seems  to  him  the  one  valuable  thing  on 
earth,  if  he  could  do  so  without  laying  himself  open  to 
the  penalty  of  laws  which  men  have  made  to  protect 
these  same  valuable  possessions  ?  Or  take  men  whom 
you  call  educated.  For  what  purpose  do  they  use  their 
better  powers  ?  For  the  purposes  of  self,  again.  A  man 
who  has  had  the  fortune  to  be  ground  to  a  finer  edge 
than  his  fellows  has  so  much  better  a  chance  of  cutting 
his  way  through  the  mass  that  crowds  about  him,  and 
the  fact  that  that  mass  is  made  up  of  his  brothers  matters 
nothing.  And  in  the  houses,  it  is  the  same, — strife  and 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  I  I  I 

bitterness  and  unrest.  I  have  seen  it  all,  and  to  escape  I 
built  this  tower.  Here  is  peace, — and  peace  is  the  only 
good  the  earth  holds."  His  voice  failed  suddenly  at  the 
end,  and  he  leaned  heavily  against  the  wall  as  though  in 
weariness  or  weakness. 

Paul  put  his  hand  on  his  arm  questioningly. 

"  Have  I  let  you  talk  too  long  ?  " 

"It  is  nothing.     Give  me  your  arm.     So." 

Miss  Mabie  had  arisen  and  now  came  anxiously  toward 
him. 

"  Do  not  alarm  yourself,"  he  said  courteously.  "  I  am 
perfectly  well, — but  somewhat  weary." 

"  We  have  staid  too  long  !  " 

"  I  hope  you  will  come  again  and  when  you  will,"  he 
answered  evasively.  "  The  glass  will  always  be  here,  if  I 
am  not.  To-night,  perhaps,  I  may  ask  you  to  excuse  me." 

''  May  I  not  take  you  to  your  room  ? "  Paul  asked. 

He   looked  up  in  surprise. 

"  Oh,  no.  I  am  better  here.  This  is  where  I  live.  You 
will  come  again,  I  trust.  I  assure  you  this  talk  has  not 
harmed  me.  It  was  only  a  little  unusual."  He  smiled 
deprecatingly,  and  they  said  good-night  and  left  him 
there,  though  Joyce  was  disturbed. 

"  Do  you  think  we  ought  to  leave  him  alone  ? "  she 
asked. 

"  I  think  he  has  probably  forgotten  about  us  by  this 
time  and  that  consequently  he  is  restored  to  perfect 
serenity.  Did  you  know  you  were  in  for  a  lecture  when 
you  came  over  ?  " 

"  No,  I  came  to  look  through  his  telescope.  Mrs. 
Hamill  was  to  have  come,  but  she  couldn't  get  away  from 
Jamie  just  then,  so  I  came  alone.  But  I  wasn't  sorry  to 
hear  the  lecture,  as  you  call  it.  What  he  said  was  true." 

"  Oh,  yes,  men  in  general  are  disappointing.  Why,  I've 
seen  a  number  of  disagreeable  traits  in  them,  myself." 


112  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"  Have  you  ?     Curious  !     What,  for  instance  ?  " 

"  Not  thinking  as  I  do  is  probably  the  most  serious 
and  comprehensive.  Then,  not  understanding  that 
though  they  may  not  think  as  I  do,  my  view  must  neces 
sarily  be  the  right  one,  and  that  it  is  only  a  question  of 
time  and  conscientious  effort  when  they  may  attain  to  it." 

She  laughed,  as  he  had  meant  to  make  her. 

"  What  are  you  going  to  do  about  the  Works  ? "  she 
asked  directly. 

"  Didn't  you  tell  me  that  I  must  take  them  up  ?" 

"  I  didn't  know  you  were  going  to." 

"  I  didn't  know  you  had  left  me  any  alternative." 

"  Are  you  always  so  obedient  ?  " 

"  Doesn't  obedience  become  my  years  ?  " 

Drusilla  Hamill  had  come  down  from  her  steps  to  meet 
them  as  they  crossed  the  garden. 

"  What  are  you  discussing  so  seriously  ?  "  she  asked. 

"  Oh,  the  chief  end  of  man,  and  freewill  and  foreordina- 
tion,  and  some  other  things  of  that  sort.  Isn't  it  a  beau 
tiful  evening  ? " 


XL 

BUT  it  was  not  Joyce  Mabie  after  all  who  was  responsi 
ble  for  Rodman's  decision.  What  a  young  man  says  in  a 
moonlit  garden,  with  a  girl's  eyes  drawing  unsuspected 
thoughts  to  the  surface,  may  be  very  different  from  what 
he  thinks  on  the  same  subject  the  next  morning  under 
the  light  of  the  work-a-day  sun.  Paul  probably  remem 
bered  the  eyes  themselves  much  more  vividly  than  what 
they  had  befooled  him  into  saying,  and  it  is  just  possible 
that  he  was  not  thinking  of  the  troublesome  Works  at  all 
when  he  set  out  across  the  borders  of  the  town  the  next 
morning  to  find  Ben  Baily.  And  Ben  Baily  was  the  man 
who  tipped  the  wavering  scale,  much  to  his  own  disgust, 
as  it  happened. 

There  was  a  little  pond  on  the  way  where  the  boy  Paul 
had  made  many  marvellous  discoveries  in  the  days  when 
every  water-beetle  might  be  a  rare  Dytiscus,  heretofore 
unnamed  and  unknown,  and  the  memory  thereof  lured  him 
aside  when  he  found  himself  again  in  its  neighborhood. 
There  it  was,  as  slumberously  warm  as  of  old,  with  dart 
ing  flies  lacing  their  way  over  it  and  water-spiders  sliding 
on  the  surface.  He  made  a  scoop  of  his  handkerchief  and 
a  willow  twig  and  dipped  up  a  handful  of  the  slime  from 
the  bottom,  and  went  down  devoutly  on  his  knees  to 
examine  the  wriggling  colony.  There  were  still  some 
things  that  could  banish  Joyce  Mabie's  eyes.  He  did  not 
note  the  shadow  that  fell  upon  the  grass  till  some  one 
spoke  almost  at  his  elbow. 

"You're  dead  in  earnest,  ain't  you,  though  ?" 


1 14  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

The  slow,  soft  voice  made  its  way  through  Paul's  mem 
ory  even  before  he  turned  to  catch  the  intent  eyes  fixed 
upon  his  work. 

"  Hello,  Ben  Baily  !     Why,  I  was  just  looking  for  you.' 

"Was  you?  Well,  I  haven't  been  living  at  the  bottom 
of  the  pond  for  some  little  time  now,"  said  Baily  with  a 
grin,  sitting  down  on  a  convenient  log.  "  So  you  knew 
me,  did  you  ?  " 

"  Did  you  think  I'd  forgotten  ?  That  isn't  likely ! 
Besides,"  he  added  mischievously,  "  the  moonlight  on 
Miss  Estee's  lawn  was  bright  enough." 

Baily  shot  a  sudden  side-glance  at  him. 

"  You're  mightily  taken  up  with  them  things,  ain't 
you  ?"  he  said  calmly,  with  a  gesture  toward  the  writhing 
mass  on  the  handkerchief. 

"  But  why  didn't  you  stop  when  I  called  to  you,  Ben  ?  " 

"  I  remember  it  was  the  same  when  you  was  a  young 
ster,"  Baily  continued  meditatively.  "  You  knew  more 
about  the  birds  and  squirrels  and  such  things  all  over  the 
neighborhood  than  them  that  had  lived  here  all  their 
lives." 

"  What  were  you  doing  on  Miss  Estee's  lawn,  anyhow 
Ben  ?  " 

"  I  suppose,  now,  there  ain't  much  about  such  little  ani 
mals  that  you  don't  know  by  this  time." 

"There  is  a  good  deal  about  both  big  and  little  animals 
that  I  don't  know.  How  can  I,  when  they  won't  answer 
straight  questions  ?  " 

"  I  suppose,  now,  that  sort  of  study  might  have  a  ten 
dency  to  develop  unusual  symptoms  of  curiosity  in  gen 
eral  ?  "  said  Baily  blandly. 

Paul  threw  back  his  head  and  laughed  at  his  own  baffle 
ment,  and  Baily,  feeling  that  he  had  won,  returned  to  his 
first  query. 

"  Say,  Paul,  you're  dead  in  earnest  about  studying  the 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY,  115 

ways  of  them  unhandsome  little  creatures,  ain't  you  ?  Or 
was  you  just  doing  it  for  the  fun  of  it  ? " 

"  Well,  both.  It's  my  business,  in  a  way,  but  I  like  it. 
I  am  free  to  confess  that  much  to  you,  Ben  !  Do  you 
remember  the  man  on  the  coach  in  '  David  Copperfield,' 
with  his  talk  about  horses  and  dogs  ?  They  are  some 
men's  fancy,  he  says,  but  to  him  they  are  wittles  and 
drink,  lodging,  wife  and  children,  reading,  writing,  and 
'rithmetic,  snuff,  tobacker  and  sleep.  Well,  I'm  not  sure 
but  that  these  little  creatures,  unhandsome  as  you  find 
them,  are  almost  that  much  to  me." 

"  I  saw  that  when  you  was  a  kid,  only  I  didn't  know  as 
it  would  hold.  Have  you  been  at  it  ever  since  ?" 

"  When  was  I  down  here  last  ?  In  my  sophomore  vaca 
tion,  wasn't  it  ?  Yes,  I  went  to  Italy  to  study  after  leav 
ing  college,  and  I  have  been  at  work  at  the  Neapolitan 
aquarium  almost  all  the  time  since.  Oh,  I  haven't  wasted 
any  time  on  anything  else.  There  was  too  much  of  my 
own  work  to  do.  It  isn't  play,  Ben.  There's  hard  work 
in  it,  but  it  is  the  only  work  worth  doing, — for  me,  that 
is."  He  pulled  himself  up  with  a  feeling,  instinctive  with 
a  modern,  that  he  was  saying  more  about  himself  than 
was  strictly  necessary,  but  the  look  with  which  Baily  lis 
tened,  leaning  forward  with  his  hands  on  his  knees  and 
his  long  face  set  into  lines  of  intense  interest,  reassured 
him.  With  such  an  auditor,  the  most  modest  man  in  the 
world  would  be  lured  into  self-revelation. 

"  And  you  put  your  whole  heart  and  soul  into  it,  didn't 
you,  Paul  ? "  he  said,  impatient  of  the  pause. 

"  It  was  easy  to  do  that.  It  would  be  a  sight  harder  to 
put  them  anywhere  else, — that  is, — well " 

"  And  what  are  you  going  to  do  now  ?  Keep  right  on 
until  you  learn  some  of  the  secrets  that  have  been  hidden 
away  all  this  time  for  you  to  come  and  find  ? " 

Certainly  he  had  a  shrewd   eye,  this  Ben  Baily,  for  all 


Il6  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

that  his  movements  were  so  slow  and  his  voice  so  indo 
lent.  Paul  blushed  as  a  young  poet  will  when  you  ask 
him  when  his  book  is  to  appear. 

"  It  would  be  fine,  wouldn't  it,  Ben,  if  I  could  perhaps 
discover  the  antidote  for  the  wheat-blight,  for  instance  ? 
I've  been  experimenting  a  little, — well,  not  enough  to 
amount  to  anything,  perhaps,  but  I've  an  idea  that  I'm  on 
the  right  track.  And  if  I  am  to  stay  in  the  West — 

"  Where  ?  " 

"  Why,  you  see,  I've  had  an  offer  of  a  chair  in  the  State 
University  at  Allentown.  It  would  give  me  just  the 
chance  I  want  for  practical  experimenting,  it  is  the  very 
thing  I  have  been  working  for, — but " 

"  But  what  ? " 

"  Here's  this  confounded  factory  on  my  hands." 

Ben  Baily  made  no  answer.  He  stared  hard  at  Paul 
and  dropped  his  chin  on  his  hand  and  stared  harder. 

"By  the  way,  Ben,  what's  this  I  hear  about  your  quit 
ting  the  Works  ?  " 

Baily  pulled  his  mind  back  with  an  effort  and  answered 
slowly, 

"  Me  ?  Oh,  yes.  Long  ago."  And  then  he  fell  to  star 
ing  again. 

"  What  for  ?  " 

He  lifted  his  attention  again  with  a  visible  effort. 

"  Oh,  I  didn't  seem  to  hit  it  off  with  your  uncle." 

"  Poor  uncle  Ned  !  "  said  Paul  with  a  laugh  and  a  sigh. 
"  I'm  afraid  he  didn't  hit  it  off  very  well  with  a  good  many 
people.  His  heart  was  all  in  the  Works,  and  everything 
and  everybody  had  to  bend  to  that.  It  was  a  great  dis 
appointment  when  I  wouldn't  come  into  the  business, — 
greater,  I'm  afraid,  than  I  had  any  idea  at  the  time. 
That's  one  reason  why  it  seems  so  treacherous,  almost, 
for  me  to  think  of  letting  it  slide  now.  And  he  made  the 
Works  a  good  thing  for  Hereward,  at  least,  and  the  work- 


APPRENTICES   't O  DESTINY.  \\~ 

men  are  almost  family  clients.  I  feel  that  I  owe  some 
thing  to  the  Rodman  name,  to  keep  up  his  memory  and 
his  work." 

Ben  Baily  had  listened  throughout  with  absorbed  atten 
tion,  but  at  the  end  he  drew  a  long  breath  and  his  face 
relaxed. 

"  If  that's  your  feeling,  I  can  set  your  mind  at  rest 
mighty  easy.  The  Rodman  Works  were  run  first,  last  and 
all  the  time  for  the  good  of  Ned  Rodman.  You  think  it 
was  for  the  good  of  the  town  ?  He  would  have  moved  the 
plant  onto  a  desert  island  any  day  to  save  taxes,  if  it 
hadn't  been  for  the  question  of  transportation.  He  was 
the  great  man  of  the  town,  you're  right  about  that,  and 
he  could  have  run  things  for  the  most  part  as  he  pleased, 
and  what  did  he  do?  It  was  the  good  of  Ned  Rodman 
every  time,  and  the  town  might  go  to  thunder.  And  as 
for  the  men,  it  would  surprise  them  to  learn  that  they 
were  beholden  to  him,  or  so  considered.  They  were  no 
more  to  him  than  the  machinery  they  worked  with, — not 
so  much,  for  he  didn't  have  to  pay  for  repairs  when  they 
wore  out.  When  was  there  a  chance  to  screw  them  down 
that  he  didn't  take  ?  When  was  there  a  chance  to  make 
a  penny  out  of  their  poverty  and  their  need  that  he  didn't 
take  ?  Beholden  to  him  ?  They  were  slaves  to  him." 

"You  surprise  me  very  much,"  said  Paul  quickly.  "I 
never  knew  much  about  the  business — 

"  How  should  you,  a  youngster  as  you  was,  with  your 
mind  on  better  things  ?  " 

"  But  I  always  supposed  the  Rodman  Works  were  some 
thing  to  be  rather  proud  of." 

"  And  many  people  that  ought  to  know  better  think  the 
same." 

"  But  the  people  here  speak  of  it  in  the  same  way." 

"  What  people  ? " 

«  Well,  Mr.  Hale  for  one." 


Il8  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"  He's  as  hard  in  his  way  as  Ned  Rodman  was.  Who 
else  ? " 

"  Professor  Hamill." 

"  A  man  that  walks  with  his  head  in  the  clouds." 

"  And  Miss  Estee  and  her  niece." 

"  Women." 

"Well,  what  do  you  say,  then?  Is  there  anything 
shameful  that  you  are  keeping  from  me  ?" 

"  Not  that,  as  business  goes.  It  was  all  on  the  square, 
according  to  the  rules  of  the  game, — but  it's  a  game  that 
you  don't  belong  in.  That's  all.  You've  got  another 
place  in  the  world,  and  a  business  of  your  own,  and  it  isn't 
carving  false  images  out  of  your  uncle's  memory  and  sac 
rificing  before  them.  You  owe  nothing  to  his  memory. 
If  you've  got  his  money,  it's  because  he  couldn't  help 
it.  And  as  for  keeping  his  work  a-going,  it  is  quite 
unnecessary,  for  his  work  will  be  as  well  forgot 
ten." 

"You  have  some  reason  for  saying  all  this,  Ben  ? " 

"  I  have  a  reason  and  a  good  one.  I  want  you  to  see 
the  truth  and  keep  from  making  a  mistake  that'll  cost  you 
dear  in  the  end.  If  it  is  because  you  want  to  make 
money,  because  you've  nothing  better  to  do,  because  you 
feel  that  this  is  your  best  chance  of  making  your  life  worth 
while,  I've  nothing  more  to  say.  Go  in  and  make  a  suc 
cess  like  your  uncle.  Make  your  fortune  out  of  other 
people's  needs,  like  him  ;  press  and  grind  and  scrape  un>! 
shave  for  gain,  like  him  ;  eat  and  drink  and  breathe  and 
dream  gain,  like  him  ;  live,  like  him,  a  burden  to  the 
earth  and  a  shadow  to  the  sunlight,  and  when  you  come 
to  die,  like  him,  people  will  breathe  freer  to  know  that 
you're  out  of  the  world." 

"  Is  that  what  he  was  ?  " 

"  The  truth  is  no  respecter  of  tombstones.  That  is 
what  he  was." 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  119 

"  An  oppressor  instead  of  a  benefactor,  a  man  who  died 
in  debt  to  humanity  ?  " 

"  That  is  what  he  was." 

Paul  pondered  in  silence  for  a  few  moments,  and  then 
he  said  very  quietly, 

"  Then  I  shall  pay  the  debt." 

Ben  Baily  looked  puzzled  and  then  dismayed. 

"  How  do  you  mean,  Paul  ?  " 

"  I  mean  that.  I  told  you  I  felt  that  I  owed  something 
to  the  Rodman  name.  That  was  when  I  thought  he  had 
made  it  a  mark  of  honor  to  his  townsmen.  I  owe  it  all 
the  more,  if  things  were  as  you  say.  I  owe  it  to  him  to 
retrieve  his  career,  to  rescue  his  memory  from  such  judg 
ments  as  you  have  passed  upon  him,  to  take  up  his  work 
and  carry  it  on  as  he  would  have  carried  it  on  if  he  had 
understood.  I  mean  that  I  shall  make  the  Rodman 
Works  in  truth  what  I  had  mistakenly  thought  them  to 
be, — a  blessing  to  the  town  and  to  the  men  who  depend 
upon  them  for  their  livelihood." 

11  And  your  own  work,  your  own  career,  the  life  you 
was  meant  to  lead  ?  " 

"This  duty  has  earlier  and  stronger  claims." 

"  Now  may  Heaven  forgive  all  blind  fools,  and  you 
among  the  rest,  Paul  Rodman.  Is  suicide  a  duty ?  Is 
self-murder  a  holy  thing?" 

"  It  may  be." 

"  Never.  There's  some  work  in  the  world  for  the  poor 
est  stick  to  do,  and  he'd  better  hold  on  to  life  till  he  finds 
it,  and  if  he  has  found  it,  as  you  have, — you  know  well 
enough  that  your  work  is  in  the  laboratory  and  that  the 
Master-Worker  set  you  at  it, — if  he  has  found  his  work, 
as  you  have,  and  turns  and  leaves  it,  he  is  a  deserter  and 
a  traitor  and  a  coward." 

"  Ben— 

"  Now  you   listen   to   me,   Paul   Rodman.     You've   said 


I2O  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

what  your  meaning  is.  Now  listen  to  me.  If  you,  in 
your  blindness  and  ignorance,  go  to  tie  a  rope  around 
your  neck,  I'll  cut  you  down,  my  boy,  and  I  won't  stop  to 
ask  your  leave  till  afterwards." 

"  Do  you  mean " 

"  I  mean  that  if  you  tie  yourself  up  with  these  Works, 
which  you  have  no  proper  business  with,  I'll  cut  you 
free." 

"  Thank  you,  Ben,  but  I  am  generally  the  master  of  my 
own  actions." 

"  Perhaps  you  have  been,  but  there's  going  to  be  a 
change.  I  give  you  warning.  I'll  save  you  from  your 
own  headlongness,  if  the  Works  have  to  burn  for  it." 

"  All  right,  Ben.  It's  a  challenge,  is  it  ?  The  first 
move  is  mine,  and  I'm  not  going  to  let  you  beat  me  if  I 
can  help  myself." 

"  You  can't  help  yourself,  because  you're  on  the  wrong 
side,  while  I'm  doing  my  proper  work, — which  is  to  look 
out  for  them  that  can't  help  themselves,  like  fool  humans 
and — maimed  horses." 


XII. 

So,  after  all  the  preliminary  deliberation,  the  die  was 
cast  somewhat  impulsively  in  the  end.  Rodman  felt  that 
it  meant  the  end  of  certain  things  and  rather  solemnly 
put  his  mind  in  order  and  prepared  to  forget  them.  He 
wrote  to  the  regents  at  Allentown  and  to  Karl  Bahrdt, 
and  subscribed  to  a  number  of  trade  and  economic  jour 
nals.  Then,  feeling  that  he  had  made  an  heroic  begin 
ning,  he  rested  on  his  oars  a  little,  and  discussed  the 
matter  with  Miss  Mabie.  That,  on  the  whole,  was  the 
-pleasantest  aspect  of  the  entire  business,  and  as  pleasant 
things  were  more  in  accord  with  his  genius  than  solemn 
ones,  and  his  personal  presence  at  the  factory  was  cer 
tainly  not  necessary  to  keep  the  lathes  turning,  and  the 
Works  were  a  stuffy  place  at  best,  and  the  schemes  that 
the  future  might  hold  would  certainly  be  better  for  being 
thoroughly  talked  over  first,  there  were  reasons  enough 
why  he  should  be  more  frequently  found  in  the  pretty 
garden  where  Mrs.  Hamill  and  Joyce  spent  their  morn 
ings  than  in  the  "  Private  Office  "  where  his  uncle  had 
chiefly  lived,  or  in  consultation  with  Hale  over  the  papers 
and  policies  that  had  to  do  with  his  newly-acquired  prop 
erty.  For  certain  reasons  that  were  entirely  personal, 
Hale  was  relieved  by  the  discovery  of  this  tendency  in 
his  client,  but  nevertheless  his  instincts  of  business  and 
conscience  prompted  him  to  expostulate.  He  was  per 
haps  rather  given  to  expostulating.  Miss  Estee  had  once 
suggested  that  he  write  a  text-book  to  be  called,  "  Hale 
on  Remonstrance  ;  being  a  treatise  on  the  Practice  and 
f 


122  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

Procedure  of  Holding  One's  Friends  to  their  Duties." 
He  had  betrayed  no  resentment,  but  it  took  him  a  long 
time  to  forgive  her. 

One  day,  turning  a  street  corner  at  his  habitually  rapid 
pace,  he  almost  shot  by  his  fugacious  friend. 

"  Hello  !     Oh,  did  you  see  Cuminings  ?  " 

"  Cummings  ? "  Paul  repeated.  Cummings  was  the 
foreman  of  the  Rodman  Works,  but  the  owner  and  pro 
prietor  of  the  Works  looked  as  though  he  could  not  place 
him  for  a  moment.  "  No.  When  ?  " 

"  To-day.     He  was  looking  for  you." 

"  I'm  afraid  he  didn't  find  me,  then,"  Paul  said  serenely. 
He  had  turned  and  was  walking  with  Hale,  forcing  him 
to  take  his  own  sauntering  pace.  "  Did  he  happen  to 
say  what  he  wanted  ?  " 

"  He  intimated  that  there  was  some  trouble  with  the 
men.  I  suppose  you  know  about  it." 

"  That  is  a  great  deal  of  an  assumption  for  a  man  with 
a  legal  training,  Steve." 

"You  didn't  know  about  it  ?" 

"  Not  a  word.     I  thought  the  trouble  was  all  on  my  side." 

"  They  may  make  you  share  it.  They're  a  hard  lot, 
some  of  them." 

"  And  he  wanted  my  advice  as  to  how  to  deal  with 
them  ? " 

"Whose  else?  Don't  you  intend  to  take  hold  of  the 
thing  practically  ? " 

"  Oh,  yes.  But  I  want  to  be  sure  I  have  the  theory 
straight  before  I  begin  the  practice.  All  material  things 
are  built  upon  thoughts,  don't  you  know  ?  Like  the 
cakes  my  mother  used  to  bake  that  were  moulded  around 
a  hole." 

"  The  men,  unfortunately,  don't  seem  inclined  to  wait 
for  your  philosophy  to  work  out  its  perfect  result.  They 
mean  to  strike  for  higher  wages." 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTIATY.  12$ 

"  Oh  !  Well,  I  don't  blame  them.  Only  they  might 
have  waited  to  see  what  I  was  going  to  do  about  it  my 
self." 

"  Were  you  going  to  volunteer  an  advance  ? " 

"  Well,  I've  been  thinking  of  it.  I  must  do  something 
to  signalize  my  accession,  and  that  comes  as  near  a  gen 
eral  amnesty  as  modern  conditions  will  admit.  Besides, 
it  seems  we  are  rather  below  the  eastern  rates,  which 
isn't  creditable  to  us." 

Hale  walked  on  with  his  eyes  upon  the  ground.  They 
were  eyes  that  could  see  through  subterfuges  and  veils, 
and  pierce  to  the  secret  places  of  conscience,  but  they 
did  not  always  see  what  lay  upon  the  surface.  He  was 
perhaps  constitutionally  incapable  of  understanding 
Paul's  way  of  looking  at  things.  When  he  spoke  it  was 
with  a  conscious  deliberation,  as  though  every  phrase 
-were  weighted. 

"  You  might  as  well  understand,  Rodman,  that  it  is  no 
child's  play  you  are  engaged  in.  These  men  are  the 
rough  material  of  humanity.  If  you  are  going  to  do  any 
thing  with  them,  you  must  master  them.  They  must  feel 
the  iron  heel.  I  have  no  patience  with  your  flimsy  theo 
ries  and  sentimental  propaganda.  Go  back  to  first  prin 
ciples,  and  it  is  power  which  has  built  up  civilization, — 
and  law,  which  is  the  language  of  power.  Crush  or  be 
crushed, — that  has  been  the  condition  of  existence  from 
the  beginning.  Hold  your  hand  while  you  elaborate  fine 
theories  that  your  men  don't  understand  and  would  scorn 
if  they  did,  and  you  will  be  crushed,  that's  all, — and  the 
earth  be  better  off  by  one  fool  less  " 

He  had  fallen  into  a  long  stride,  and  law  and  order  and 
power  seemed  to  run  like  well-trained  lackeys  at  his 
heels.  But  Paul,  even  while  the  heavy  voice  with  its 
dominant  ring  was  filling  his  ears,  thought  of  Karl  Bahrdt 
and  smiled  involuntarily  to  himself. 


124  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"  I  am  afraid  the  iron-heel  business  isn't  suited  to  my 
style,"  he  said  gaily. 

Hale  turned  to  take  in  deliberately  the  white-flannel 
tennis  suit,  the  flower  in  the  button-hole,  the  hair  that 
had  been  allowed  to  grow  long  enough  just  over  the  fore 
head  to  indulge  its  tendency  to  break  away  from  a 
straight  line. 

"  You  are  master,"  he  said  shortly. 

A  light  shot  from  Rodman's  eyes,  and  the  lips  pressed 
close  for  a  moment.  "  Yes,  I  am  master,"  he  repeated 
slowly.  And  then  he  laughed.  "  Though  you  don't  be 
lieve  it !  " 

When  Hale  left  him,  Paul  turned,  too,  concluding  to 
postpone  his  visit  to  High  Street.  It  would  be  as  well  to 
see  what  Cummings  wanted  of  him.  He  might  not  make 
Hale  his  father-confessor,  but  he  had  no  intention  of 
playing  with  his  undertaking.  There  is  an  inspiration 
about  work,  as  he  knew  well,  that  might  make  it  the 
dream  of  heaven  for  idlers,  if  they  were  ever  so  fortunate 
as  to  make  a  guess  at  what  it  is  like.  He  was  ready  for 
the  work,  when  he  had  made  the  conditions  clear  to  him 
self.  So  he  turned  towards  the  square  buildings  that 
were  visible  beyond  the  border  of  trees  which  skirted  the 
little  river.  The  river  was  the  separating  line  between 
the  aristocratic  portion  of  Hereward  and  the  portion 
where  the  men  who  lived  in  the  aristocratic  end  made 
their  money  and  the  men  who  were  not  aristocratic  made 
their  homes. 

But  his  thoughts  could  not  keep  him  from  taking  note 
of  the  beauty  of  the  morning.  Nations  may  totter  and 
races  shipwreck  themselves  on  reefs  of  their  own  fashion 
ing,  but  the  spring  sweeps  over  the  earth  each  year  with 
the  same  ungrudging  bounty  of  life,  the  same  inspiration, 
that  it  must  have  had  when  the  experiment  was  new. 
Every  thing  that  was  free  felt  it.  It  was  easy  to  believe 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  12$ 

all  that  poets  would  wish  us  to  believe  about  the  joy  of 
the  winds  and  the  woods  and  the  running  brooks.  There 
was  no  room  for  question  when  it  came  to  the  animals. 
From  the  squirrels  that  frisked  along  the  top  of  the 
fences  with  a  defiant  flirt  of  the  tail  as  they  flashed 
behind  a  tree,  to  the  small  boy  scuttling  along  the  street 
with  a  fishing-rod  over  his  shoulder,  the  whole  world  was 
alive  with  the  response  that  spring  demands  to  her  anti- 
phone.  Probably  some  misguided  father  would  punish 
the  boy  later  on  for  listening  to  nature's  invitation  to  the 
dance  instead  of  going  to  the  school-room  and  taking  a 
long  lesson  in  pessimism  from  being  compelled  to  parse, 
define,  and  otherwise  maltreat  words  that  should  only 
have  been  felt, — but  it  was  worth  risking. 

The  water  in  the  little  brook  was  high  and  it  danced 
down  its  way  as  gleefully  as  though  it  never  suspected 
that  half  a  mile  farther  down  it  would  be  prisoned,  spite 
of  its  splashes  of  protest,  and  compelled  to  turn  the 
wheels  in  Mr.  Rodman's  service,  until  with  a  turbulent 
indignation  it  broke  away  and  ran,  scolding  and  turbid, 
down  to  where  the  pacific  meadows  might  coax  it  into 
gentleness  again.  The  brook  was  more  of  a  social  than  a 
physical  barrier  at  Hereward.  "  Across  the  bridge  "was  a 
colloquialism  for  that  social  state  which  is  understood  by 
the  rest  of  the  world  to  consist  chiefly  of  dirt,  duties,  and 
other  discomforts.  There  certainly  was  an  access  of  dirt. 
Rodman  glanced  down  the  streets  with  a  feeling  of  deso 
lation.  The  houses  were  smaller  and  more  crowded,  but 
that  was  not  the  worst.  There  was  a  general  air  of 
untidiness  about  the  place.  The  spring  was  working  here 
against  disadvantages  which  almost  robbed  it  of  its 
power  to  charm.  The  springy  sod,  which  on  the  other 
side  had  suggested  only  the  newness  of  the  season,  was 
here  a  hint  of  mud.  The  gurgling  little  stream  which 
splashed  along  the  edge  of  the  walk  made  him  think  of 


I 

126  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

the  need  of  drainage  rather  than  of  any  freshening  touch. 
Where  carefully  cared-for  gardens  on  the  other  side  had 
given  promise  that  the  earth  was  going  to  do  its  best  for 
its  friends,  the  men  who  were  its  guests,  here  the  enclos 
ures  about  the  houses  were  weed-grown  and  neglected,  or 
hedged  off  with  laths  to  protect  their  probably  useful  but 
unattractive  stores  from  the  depredations  of  the  chickens. 
These  contented  birds  were  all  about,  and  they  seemed 
to  be  the  only  portion  of  the  community  which  was  doing 
its  duty  in  the  way  of  co-operating  with  nature.  They 
scratched  in  the  middle  of  the  street  and  sang  loudly 
their  undiversified  but  most  cheerful  song,  and  when  a  hen 
with  a  brood  of  little  yellow  creatures  ruffled  up  her 
feathers  at  him,  he  felt  a  debt  of  personal  gratitude  to 
her  for  doing  so  exactly  what  was  befitting.  It  made  up 
in  part  for  the  very  evident  failure  of  the  human  race  to 
do  what  was  either  befitting  or  beautiful. 

At  the  Works,  however,  the  squalor  of  the  residence 
portion  was  replaced  by  the  cleaner  atmosphere  of  busi 
ness  activity.  Beauty  might  be  reduced  to  its  lowest 
terms, — doubtless  it  was, — but  at  least  here  were  order 
and  utility  and  fitness.  Rodman,  coming  from  one  to  the 
other,  saw  that  very  possibly  the  best  and  most  perfect 
part  of  the  lives  of  the  men  came  with  the  orderly  routine 
and  discipline  of  this  work  of  theirs.  They  didn't  know 
how  to  make  homes  yet,  or  independently  to  live  lives 
that  would  be  lovely  and  self-justifying.  Take  away  from 
them  the  work  against  which  their  extremists  were  fight 
ing,  and  what  would  be  left  ?  Only  that  part  of  their  lives 
which  they  had  proven  themselves  unable  to  cope  with, 
even  while  it  was  only  a  portion. 

Ho  went  into  the  "  Private  Office,"  where  he  was,  in 
truth,  a  good  deal  of  a  stranger.  A  lonely  book-keeper 
on  a  high  stool  was  industriously  whittling  a  lead-pencil 
down  to  fit  a  nail-hole  in  his  desk,  but  when  he  perceived 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  12  J 

Rodman  he  stiffened  his  muscles  and  tried  to  pretend 
that  it  had  all  been  in  the  interests  of  business. 

"  Good-morning,"  said  Rodman.  "  I  want  to  see  Mr. 
Cummings." 

"  He'll  be  in  in  a  few  minutes." 

Rodman  sat  down  and  looked  about.  The  sunlight 
came  in  languorously  through  the  open  windows  and  there 
was  a  drowsy  whirr  of  machinery  in  the  air.  The  book 
keeper  looked  sleepy  in  spite  of  his  efforts  to  make  a  show 
of  activity.  Rodman  wondered  who  he  was  and  how  he 
regarded  his  own  life  in  this  limited  territory  and  what 
his  ambitions  were  ;  he  was  about  to  speak  to  him  when 
he  caught  sight  of  a  placard,  "  No  communication  allowed 
with  employees  during  business  hours."  That  rather 
abashed  him  and  he  checked  the  words  on  his  lips,  but  the 
next  moment  he  remembered  that  he  was  no  meddlesome 
visitor  but  the  employer  himself,  with  an  undisputed  right 
within  the  walls.  He  turned  to  the  man  again  with 
friendly  overtures. 

"You  keep  the  books,  don't  you  ?  How  long  have  you 
been  at  it  ?  " 

"  Ten  years." 

"  Why,  that  is  a  long  time,"  said  Paul,  reflecting  that 
the  young  man  looked  about  his  own  age,  and  remember 
ing  that  his  own  last  ten  years  had  been  spent  in  prepara 
tion  rather  than  achievement. 

"  It's  likely  to  be  longer,"  he  answered  carelessly. 

"You  like  the  work,  I  suppose." 

The  man  didn't  answer,  so  Paul  added  with  a  smile, 
"  Or  don't  you  ?  " 

"  It's  as  good  as  anything,  I  suppose,  but  I  can't  say  I 
like  it.  I  have  to  work.  I  wouldn't  if  I  could  help  my 
self.  Who  would  ?  " 

"  What  would  you  do  ? " 

"  If  I  didn't  have  to  work  ?     Why,  I'd  enjoy  myself." 


128  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"How  ?" 

The  book-keeper  looked  up  with  rather  a  doubtful 
glance.  "  Oh,  I  don't  know,"  he  answered  carelessly,  but, 
Rodman  had  an  idea  his  reticence  might  be  due  to  an 
unwillingness  to  expose  his  aspirations  to  a  man  whose 
attitude  seemed  critical,  and  pressed  the  question. 

"Is  there  anything  in  particular  that  you  have  a  bent 
for,  that  you  would  like  to  follow  ?" 

"  Not  in  the  way  of  work,"  he  said  with  a  relaxing  grin. 

"  In  what  way,  then  ?  " 

"  Why,  if  I  had  all  the  money  I  wanted,  if  that's  what 
you  mean,  I'd  be  what  they  call  a  sport,  I  suppose.  I'd 
have  horses,  and  so  on.  Oh,  I'd  know  how  to  enjoy 
myself."  He  laughed  rather  shamefacedly,  and,  evidently 
ill  at  ease,  turned  back  to  his  work.  Paul  said  no  more, 
but,  studying  the  heavy  face,  flushed  skin,  thick  neck  and 
drooping  eye  with  his  naturalist's  habit  of  observation,  he 
saw  clearly  enough  that  whatever  there  was  in  the  man 
above  the  level  of  coarseness  came  from  the  discipline  of 
the  work  he  hated.  With  that  relaxed,  he  would  have 
been  a  rough.  He  was  forced  to  be  something  better  by 
the  necessity  of  earning  a  living.  It  was  the  same  situa 
tion  that  Paul  had  seen  outside.  He  wondered  what  Karl 
Bahrdt  would  say  to  it,  and  what  Ben  Baily  would  say, 
and  what  Hale  would  say.  He  felt  that  he  was  getting 
into  deeper  water  than  he  could  fathom,  and  turned  back 
to  the  more  immediate  business.  "  Will  you  see  if  you 
can  find  Mr.  Cummings  ?" 

But  Mr.  Cummings  himself  came  hastily  in  at  this 
moment. 

"I  just  heard  you  were  here,  Mr.  Rodman.  Will  you 
go  over  the  building  ?  " 

"  Not  to-day,  Mr.  Cummings.  I  came  down  to  find  out 
what  it  is  the  men  want.  Are  they  asking  an  advance  in 
wages  ?  Mr.  Hale  said  you  spoke  of  it  to  him." 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  12$ 

"Yes,  I — I  mentioned  it,"  said  Cummings,  looking  ex 
ceedingly  uncomfortable.  "  I  didn't  know  where  to  find 
you,  and  they  are  urgent.  Some  one  has  been  stirring 
them  up.  I  could  have  settled  it  myself,  and  would  have 
done  so  at  once  in  your  absence,  but  they  insisted  on  hav 
ing  it  presented  to  you,  and  I  felt  that  it  would  be  as  well 
to  do  so,  so  they  would  understand  you  were  back  of 
me." 

"  You  were  quite  right." 

"  I  have  done  what  I  could  to  make  them  see  that  they 
were  making  fools  of  themselves  arid  that  they  would  only 
lose  in  the  end  if  they  persisted,  but  as  they  look  upon  me 
as  representing  your  interests,  I  have  not  very  much  in 
fluence  with  them." 

"  Oh,  you  have  opposed  it  ? " 

"  Certainly.  At  all  times  and  in  every  way,"  he  said 
eagerly. 

"  Have  they  made  any  demand  of  this  sort  before  ?  " 
Paul  asked  with  surprise.  He  felt  that  he  stood  on  the 
shore  of  an  unknown  sea,  and  every  new  fact  washed  up 
was  fresh  cause  for  surprise. 

"  It  hasn't  been  formally  made  before,  but  there  has 
been  talk.  I  knew  what  was  in  the  wind,  and  was  pre 
pared  to  meet  it." 

"  Then  they  have  now  made  a  formal  demand  for 
higher  wages  ? " 

"  They  are  ready  to  do  so  as  soon  as  you  will  see  the 
delegation." 

"  Who  are  the  leaders  ?  " 

"Old  employes,  sir.  But  there  will  be  no  difficulty  in 
filling  their  places.  Of  course  it  will  throw  us  back  at 
first." 

"  They  mean  to  go  out,  then,  if  they  are  re 
fused  ?" 

"So  they  say,  but  that  will  make  no  difference  at  all, 


130  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

Mr.  Rodman.     I'll  turn  them  all  out  to-morrow,  and  have 

the  Works  running  smoothly  in  a  week." 

"  Then  you  think  their  demand  is  unreasonable?" 
Cummings  looked  as  though  he  doubted  that   he  had 

heard  aright. 

"  Why,  as  to  that,"  he  hesitated,  "  as  to  that,  I  suppose 

it  is — as  you  look  at  it." 

"  Well,  must  you  necessarily  look  from  one  side  only  ? 

Is  it   impossible  to  arrive  at  a  fixed  rate  which  shall  be 

just  to  both  sides  ?  " 

"  The  other  side    generally    looks    out    for  itself.     It 

don't  need  much  help  !  " 

''But  isn't  there  some  way  of  saying  what  is  just  ?" 

"  Why,  the  rates  are  advancing  in  some  quarters.     You 

see,  the  men  wring  a  concession  from  one  company,  and 

then  all  the  others  have  to  meet  it." 

"  Yes,"  said  Paul,  perceiving  that  the  other  had  failed 

altogether  to  apprehend  his  question.     "  Did  they  wring 

many  such  concessions  from  my  uncle  ?  " 

"  No,  sir.     He  could  stand  up  to  them  well,  and  he  did 

it,  too." 

"  Then  we  aren't  paying  the  highest  ruling  rates  ? " 
"  No,  sir,  we're  better  than  that  by  some  degrees." 
"  Are  we  paying  what  the  work  is  fairly  worth  ?  " 
"  Why,  I  can  get    two    men    for    every  one  that  goes. 

No  fear  of  that.     There  are  plenty  willing   and  glad  to 

work  at  any  price." 

His  fear  of  saying  anything  contrary  to  his  employer's 

supposed    wishes,    his    utter    sacrifice    of    his     individual 

erectness,  struck  Paul  as  so  pitiable  that  he  instinctively 

turned  his  face  away  that  he   might   not  see   the  other's 

shame.     Couldn't  a  man  be  a  man  and  a  workman,  too  ? 

"  Yet  what  chance  is  there   for  the  soul   to  stand   erect, 

when  first  of  all  the  body  must  be  fed?"  he  asked  him 
self. 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  I  3  I 

"  Will  you  tell  the  men  that  I  am  here  and  will  hear 
what  they  have  to  say  ?  And  I  would  like  to  have  you 
here,  too,  Mr.  Cummings,  to  hear  what  I  have  to  say  to 
them." 

"  Certainly,  Mr.  Rodman." 

The  delegation  came  in, — a  striking  contrast,  regarded 
as  a  picture,  to  Paul,  standing  by  the  table  with  his  boyish 
air  and  his  observant  eyes.  The  spokesman  came  first 
an  old  man  with  a  long  grey  beard  and  a  frame  bent,  yet 
stalwart.  He  would  have  been  a  noticeable  man  in  a 
crowd,  and  under  other  circumstances  might  have  stood 
for  a  patriarch  or  a  sage.  As  it  was,  he  was  simply  a  man 
who  had  spent  some  sixty-odd  years  striving  to  keep  the 
large  family,  which,  with  more  or  less  honesty  of  thought, 
he  attributed  entirely  to  an  inscrutable  Providence, 
clothed  and  fed.  For  recreation,  (for  steady  work  for 
sixty-odd  years  comes  to  have  a  certain  deadness  of 
monotony,)  he  read  reform  papers  and  talked  at  socialis 
tic  meetings  of  various  sorts. 

In  his  rear,  hovering  with  somewhat  uncertain  foot 
steps,  was  a  pale-faced  youth  who  had  acquired  a  reputa 
tion  for  much  learning.  It  was  he  who  had  drawn  up  the 
document  which  the  spokesman  carriegj.  Now,  as  he  took 
a  chair  with  a  face  paler  than  usual  and  a  nervous  tremor 
at  his  lip,  he  was  thinking  less  of  the  import  of  the  set  of 
resolutions  he  had  drawn  than  of  their  form,  and  mentally 
he  repeated  the  opening  sentence  again  and  again,  turn 
ing  it  anxiously  and  yet  proudly  in  his  mind. 

The  third  man  was  different.  There  was  power  in  his 
face, — the  sort  of  power  a  strong  nature  has.  But  it  was 
power  directed  by  self-seeking  and  armed  with  hate. 
Paul's  blue  eyes  rested  upon  him  longer  than  on  the 
others,  and  a  look  came  into  them  which  might  have  made 
an  observer  remember  that  blue  is  a  color  which  pertains 
to  steel  as  well  as  to  summer  skies. 


132  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

They  took  the  chairs  around  the  little  table,  and  the 
oldest  man  unfolded  and  folded  the  paper  he  held  with 
nervous  fingers. 

"  Mr.  Rodman,  we  come  as  a  delegation  to  represent  to 
you  the  wishes — 

"  Demands,"  the  third  man  put  in,  in  an  impatient 
undertone. 

"  — of  the  workmen  employed  in  your  Works.  And  to 
begin  with  as  an  introduction  I  would  like  to  remind 
you  of  Peter  Cooper's  words,  that  every  manufacturer 
ought  to  remember  that  his  fortune  was  not  achieved  by 
himself  alone  but  by  the  co-operation  of  his  workmen. 
He  should  acknowledge  their  right  to  share  the  benefit 
of  that  which  could  not  exist  without  their  faithful  per 
formance  to  duty.  As  the  men  who  are  engaged  in  build 
ing  up  a  fortune  for  you,  we  claim  that  we  are  entitled 
to  favorable  consideration  at  your  hands." 

"I  am  ready  to  listen,"  Paul  said  quietly.  He  was 
doing  more  than  listen.  The  men  before  him  were  repre 
sentative  men,  and  he  was  studying  them,  not  their  cum 
brous  phrases.  The  theories  of  Karl  Bahrdt  and  Joyce 
Mabie  were  translated  into  concrete  terms,  and  he  felt 
that  there  was  something  more  in  the  translation  than  in 
the  original. 

"We  have  worked  here  for  a  long  time,  and  we  have 
built  up  this  industry,  which  is  a  matter  of  pride  to  the 
community  and  of  profit  to  you.  It  is  our  hands  that  has 
erected  it.  Without  us  it  would  not  have  been.  There 
fore  we  rightfully  have  some  share  in  it,  we  ought  to  have. 
We  haven't  been  organized  before  and  didn't  know 
enough  to  assert  and  defend  our  rights,  but  we're  organ 
ized  now  and  in  union  is  strength  and  we  mean  to  stand 
firm  in  defense  of  it.  This  draft  of  the  Resolutions  passed 
at  our  last  meeting  will  show  you  our  position.  The 
wages  we  have  had  are  too  low.  A  man  can't  live  on 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  133 

them,"  he  finished,  with  a  tremble  in  his  voice  that  be 
trayed  an  honest  feeling  under  his  artificial  rhetoric. 

Paul  took  the  paper  and  read  it  faithfully  to  the  end, 
and  for  that  act  of  courtesy  he  had  the  blessing  of  at  least 
one  member  of  the  delegation. 

"  And  we  don't  mean  to  live  on  them,"  the  third  man 
broke  in,  when  the  last  page  was  turned.  He  had  listened 
restlessly  to  the  first  speaker,  and  Paul's  eye  had  wandered 
to  him  once  or  twice.  It  was  evident  that  he  chafed 
under  the  moderate  tone  of  his  spokesman.  "  We  don't 
mean  to  live  on  them.  We've  got  the  power  and  we  mean 
to  use  it.  We  want  justice.  We  don't  believe  in  prop 
erty-rights.  We  believe  that  property-rights  is  the  in 
fernal  monster  that  needs  to  be  annihilated.  We're  going 
to  have  justice  or  annihilation,  and  soon,  too.  It  is  rights 
of  property  that  has  made  all  the  injustice  and  inequality 
in  the  world." 

Paul  had  turned  with  attentive  manner  when  he  began 
to  speak,  but  as  his  truculent  purpose  was  more  and  more 
manifested,  Paul  had  gradually,  though  most  uncon 
sciously,  assumed  the  air  of  unassailable  superiority  which 
no  one  could  ever  entirely  ignore  with  him.  He  was  hon 
estly  unconscious  of  anything  offensive  in  his  manner.  He 
was  simply  drawing  away  from  what  struck  him  as  a 
manifestation  of  a  brutal  nature,  but  his  ease,  his  invul 
nerable  armor,  something  that  hinted  scorn  to  his  uncul 
tured  opponent,  acted  like  a  challenge  on  the  man.  He 
met  Rodman's  look  with  one  that  was  angrily  personal. 

"  Look  at  you  and  look  at  me,"  he  cried  passionately. 
"  There  you  sit,  like  a  lord,  cool  as  you  please,  with  hands 
soft  like  a  woman's  and  a  flower  in  your  button-hole  and 
there  you  sit  and  look  us  over  like  we  was  cattle.  And 
look  at  me  !  Look  at  me  !  Some  different,  ain't  I  ?  What 
makes  the  difference,  say  ?  Wasn't  we  as  good  in  the 
cradle  ?  Not  much  difference  then.  But  now  it  is  fine 


134  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

linen  for  you  and  overalls  for  me  ;  a  traveling  through 
Europe  for  you  and  a  traveling  through  East  Hereward  at 
six  o'clock  every  mornin'  for  me  ;  mock-turtle  for  you  and 
corn-beef  for  me." 

"  Pardon  me,  but  let  me  set  you  right  on  one  point. 
I  don't  eat  mock-turtle  ;  I  don't  like  it,"  Rodman  said 
with  a  grave  air,  as  desirous  to  correct  a  fatal  mistake. 

The  pale-faced  youth,  who  evidently  was  not  yet 
aroused  to  the  graver  issues  of  life,  snickered  at  that  and 
Cummings  smiled  ostentatiously.  The  passionate  speaker 
flushed  and  clenched  his  hand.  If  his  hatred  of  his  fair- 
faced  employer  had  been  based  on  general  principles 
before,  it  was  bitter  and  personal  and  unrelenting  from 
that  moment. 

"But  we  didn't  come  here  for  personal  criticism,  how 
ever  valuable  that  may  be  as  a  means  of  self-education," 
Paul  continued,  with  an  easy  assumption  of  the  reins  of 
the  discussion,  "  Mr.  Cummings,  how  does  this  schedule 
compare  with  the  eastern  rates  ?  " 

"  It  is  higher.     It  is  outrageously  high." 

"  Much  higher  ?  " 

"  It  is  higher  here,  and  here." 

Rodman  took  the  paper  again  and  ran  his  eye  down  the 
column.  For  this  grade  of  work,  so  much  ;  for  that,  so 
much.  Little  enough,  in  all  conscience  !  He  thought  of 
the  work  it  represented,  he  tried  to  imagine  himself 
doomed  to  that  life,  to  fancy  himself  one  of  the  delegates 
come  to  petition  for  the  advance  this  represented.  He 
looked  up  to  meet  the  eyes  of  the  old  man  opposite, 
pathetic  in  their  eagerness  and  suspense.  Involuntarily 
he  put  out  his  hand  to  take  the  gnarled  old  hand  that  had 
grasped  the  corner  of  the  table  for  steadiness. 

"  You  may  tell  your  constituents  that  I  agree  to  their 
proposition." 

"  Do   you  mean — "  the    old   man  stammered,   half  ris- 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  135 

ing.  To  have  it  all  conceded  without  any  beating  down, 
without  any  bitterness,  made  him  tremble  with  a  strange 
weakness.  It  was  not  what  he  had  expected. 

"I  mean  this  schedule  of  rates  will  go  into  effect 
from  the  first  of  the  month,"  Rodman  answered,  and  with 
an  instinctive  shrinking  from  seeming  to  ask  an  acknowl 
edgement  as  for  a  bounty,  he  rose  to  close  the  interview. 
The  men  passed  out,  but  the  one  whose  angry  words  had 
put  the  sharpness  into  the  scene  refused  to  raise  his  eyes 
to  Rodman's.  He  was  still  unreconciled. 

"  What  is  his  name, — that  last  one  ?  " 

"  That  one  ?     Oh,  Mason." 

Rodman  nodded  carelessly  and  went  away. 

Cummings  promptly  snubbed  the  young  book-keeper 
into  a  state  of  resentful  industry,  and  then  pulled  out  the 
balance  sheets  of  the  last  few  months.  He  studied  the 
schedule  of  wages  that  Rodman  had  left,  ran  over  certain 
memoranda  of  contract  for  work  now  under  way,  and  cov 
ered  some  scraps  of  paper  with  figures  that  seemed  to 
yield  puzzling  results. 

"  If  the  old  man  could  know  of  this  !  Lord  Harry  !  " 
he  said  to  himself,  and  then  he  tried  to  make  the  figures 
mean  something  else,  but  the  more  ways  he  turned  them 
the  more  unmanageable  they  became.  "  If  he  is  in  busi 
ness  for  fun  he  won't  need  a  foreman  very  long.  I'd  bet 
ter  be  looking  out  for  another  place.  And  it  was  as 
pretty  a  business  as  any  in  the  country  of  its  size.  I 
hope  the  old  man  doesn't  know  !  " 

If  Paul  thought  anything  further  about  the  episode,  as 
he  went  across  lots  to  Professor  Hamill's  house  under  the 
hill,  it  was  perhaps  to  word  a  conceit  that  this  same 
unpromising  business  was  a  good  enough  soil  to  yield 
now  and  then  a  posy  for  his  lady  to  wear.  His  morning's 
work  might  mean  something  "  Across  the  bridge,"  but 
the  best  part  of  it  was  telling  Joyce  Mabie. 


XIII, 

"So  far,  so  good.  Now  what  next,  ma'am?"  asked 
Rodman  mischievously  when  he  made  his  report. 

Joyce  laughed,  but  she  was  not  to  be  daunted. 

"  Don't  you  think  a  reading-room  would  be  a  good 
thing  ?  "  she  asked  meekly. 

"  Oh,  you've  thought  it  all  out,  have  you  ?" 

"  A  reading-room  isn't  hard  to  think  of,"  she  protested. 
"And  then  you  could  have  something  like  lyceum  lec 
tures  in  connection  with  it.  Once  a  week  you  could  give 
a  talk  on  natural  history." 

"  So  you  have  included  me  among  your  beneficiaries?  " 

She  looked  puzzled  and  a  little  doubtful  of  his  mean 
ing.  The  one  thing  she  could  generally  be  sure  of  was 
that  he  was  teasing. 

"  Don't  you  know  that  the  privilege  of  talking  about 
natural  history  would  be  much  more  to  me  than  the 
privilege  of  listening  could  possibly  be  to  any  one 
else  ?  " 

"  Oh  !     But  I  wasn't  arranging  it  for  your  benefit." 

"  Why  need  you  insist  upon  that  ?  I'd  rather  think  you 
were." 

"  But  don't  you  think  it  would  be  a  good  plan  ?  "  she 
asked,  feeling  that  it  would  be  safer  to  keep  to  the  im 
personal  question. 

"  It  would  give  them  some  place  to  go  evenings,  I  sup 
pose,"  Paul  admitted.  "  From  what  I  saw  of  the  homes 
over  yonder,  I  should  think  that  would  be  a  good  deal  of 
an  inducement.  Yes,  I'm  not  sure  but  that  a  reading- 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  137 

room  is  the  next  thing, — provided  you  will  take  it  under 
your  peculiar  and  particular  care." 

Her  eyes  sparkled  with  the  anticipation.  "  Why,  it  is 
quite  ideal  !  It  will  be  beautiful  to  arrange  it  all — and 
surely  they  will  like  it  ?  " 

"They'll  have  to  like  it.  I'll  bribe  them  to  like  it,  if 
they  won't  on  any  other  conditions." 

"  Are  you  doubtful  about  it  ?  "  she  asked,  with  the  dis 
trust  of  her  own  ambitious  schemes  that  his  teasing 
sometimes  awoke. 

"  Only  of  the  absolute  ideality  of  it.  You  know  one  of 
your  poets  says  something  about  Heaven's  gift  having  to 
take  earth's  abatement.  I  suppose  we  must  count  upon 
there  being  some  discount  of  the  ideal  perfection,  just 
because  of  the  material  conditions  under  which  the  idea 
has  to  manifest.  There,  I'm  becoming  quite  proud  of 
your  pupil,  Miss  Mabie  !  " 

"  It  will  be  a  good  thing,  even  if  it  isn't  absolute  perfec 
tion,"  she  said  thoughtfully.  "  It  needn't  be  anything 
elaborate.  Just  a  room  with  some  tables  and  chairs  and 
curtains,  and  a  few  pictures,  and  then  the  books  and  mag 
azines  and  papers, — not  so  very  many  to  begin  with." 

"  Ruskin  to  head  the  list  ?  "  he  asked  mischievously. 

"Yes,"  she  said  so  seriously  that  he  hadn't  the  courage 
to  explain  that  he  hadn't  meant  it.  "  '  Time  and  Tide,' 
and  the  rest  of  that  sort.  And  then  we  must  have  some 
books  suited  to  the  women.  I  suppose  they  will  have 
more  leisure  to  go  in  the  afternoon  than  in  the  evening, 


But  this  time  his  amusement  betrayed  him,  and  then  he 
stood  abashed  before  her  questioning  look. 

"  Why  did  you  smile  in  that  way  ? "  she  demanded, 
looking  at  him  under  severe  eyebrows. 

"  I  didn't  mean  to  smile  in  that  way,"  he  said  peni 
tently,  "but  really, — do  you  insist ?" 


138  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"  Of  course  I  do." 

"  I  doubt  a  little  that  the  wives  and  mothers  will  care 
to  waste  time  in  reading." 

"  Waste  time  ?  " 

"I  was  putting  it  into  their  language,"  he  said  de 
murely,  noting  the  light  that  flashed  over  her  mobile  face. 
She  was  ready  to  fling  down  the  gauntlet  to  any  taker, 
when  her  theories  were  assailed  !  "  They  have  to  take 
care  of  the  children,  and  cook  and  sew  and  do  such 
things,  you  know.  And  there  are  a  good  many  such 
things.  And  only  twenty-four  hours  in  the  day,  even  for 
them." 

She  let  her  intent  eyes  rest  on  his  while  she  took  in  the 
new  idea.  It  rather  dashed  her  enthusiasm.  "  I  wonder 
if  it  can  be  that  they  really  haven't  time  to  read  at  all," 
she  said  slowly,  in  an  awe-struck  voice. 

He  laughed.  "  You  could  bear  to  hear  that  they  lived 
on  crusts  and  slept  on  the  floor,  but  if  they  haven't  time 
to  read  Ruskin,  it  is  a  pretty  hard  lot,  isn't  it  ?  " 

"But  do  you  really  think  they  haven't  any  time?"  she 
persisted. 

"  Oh,  it  is  a  question  of  distribution,  I  suppose.  Dec 
ades  for  gossip,  but  not  one  hour  for  reading.  But  per 
haps  the  gossip  does  them  more  good,  poor  souls,  than 
ever  Ruskin  would, — if  they  didn't  understand  him.  You 
might  reap  the  best  results  by  having  a  graded  course, — 
say  picture-papers  first,  and  then  thoughts  in  one  syllable, 
and  so  lead  your  class  on  until  it  is  ready  to  give  a  com 
mencement  essay  next  June  on  the  allegorical  significance 
of '  Childe  Harold  to  the  Dark  Tower  Came.'  " 

She  sighed  and  looked  so  disturbed  that  he  had  to  de 
sert  his  own  cause  and  go  to  her  rescue. 

"Oh,  never  mind.  Hereward  can't  be  regenerated  in  a 
day.  If  the  fathers  and  sons  have  the  taste  for  reading 
developed,  of  course  the  general  tone  will  be  elevated.  I 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  139 

think  we  may  be  content  to  begin  with  them,  and  trust  to 
the  influence  of  their-  broader  culture  to  bring  in  the  rest 
of  the  population  afterwards." 

That  sounded  nice  and  serious,  and  she  was  content. 

It  was  altogether  too  pretty  a  play  to  let  her  suspect 
that  he  was  not  as  earnest  about  it  as  she  would  have  had 
him  be.  He  pretended  so  well  that  she  had  all  the  de 
light  of  arranging  the  affair  with  no  sense  of  responsibility 
for  its  success, — and  he  had  the  delight  of  watching  her 
at  it.  They  were  golden  days  that  were  consumed  by 
these  two  in  discussing  and  planning,  and  in  selecting  the 
books  and  making  the  curtains. 

"  Can  you  really  sew?"  Paul  asked  with  respectful  cu 
riosity  the  first  time  he  saw  her  plying  her  needle. 

"  Did  you  doubt  it  ?"  she  asked  with  a  surprised  air. 

"Why,  it  never  occurred  to  me  that  you  would  know 
anything  about  a  needle, — unless  as  an  implement  some 
how  connected  with  sweating  establishments." 

She  laughed,  but  she  looked  a  little  piqued,  too.  He  saw 
that  she  was  not  altogether  pleased  to  have  him  assume 
that  she  was  set  apart  from  all  femininities,  and  the  obser 
vation  thrilled  him  with  a  sudden  sweet  joy.  It  added 
another  charm  to  those  he  was  already  finding  it  quite 
enough  to  contend  with. 

Paul  procured  a  room  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Works, 
and  proceeded  to  make  it  attractive.  He  explained  the 
scheme  to  the  foreman,  Cummings,  and  asked  him  to  com 
municate  it  to  the  men.  He  had  a  feeling  of  diffidence 
about  doing  so  himself.  He  didn't  want  to  pose  as  a  ben 
efactor,  for  one  thing,  and  he  didn't  want  the  men  to  feel 
under  any  obligation  to  come  and  be  improved  because 
he  had  provided  the  opportunity.  So  he  was  careful  to 
leave  them  wholly  at  liberty  to  follow  their  own  inclina 
tions,  only  making  the  fact  known.  Perhaps  his  sensitive 
ness  was  needless,  for  the  men  did  not  seem  to  be  at  all 


140  APPRENTICES  7'O  DESTINY. 

backward  in  protecting  their  independence.  They  talked 
about  the  new  plan  among  themselves,  and  wondered 
what  it  was  for,  anyhow,  and  a  few  of  them  came  and 
looked  in  at  the  door  while  Rodman  was  directing  the 
hanging  of  Joyce's  curtains.  When  one  of  her  curtain- 
rings  came  off,  by  the  way,  he  slipped  it  hastily  into  his 
pocket  so  that  the  workmen  would  not  notice  the  defec 
tive  fastening.  He  put  it  on  his  table  as  a  souvenir  after 
ward,  and  though  he  smiled  at  it  himself  when  he  remem 
bered,  he  never  gave  anyone  else  occasion  to  do  so. 

Finally  the  work  was  finished,  and  the  result  was  a  very 
clean  and  attractive  place,  with  freshly  scrubbed  iloor 
and  new  pine  chairs,  and  fresh  literature  that  would  have 
tempted  any  epicure  in  books.  Paul  took  his  friends  over 
for  a  "  Private  View  "  the  day  before  it  was  to  be  thrown 
open  to  the  public. 

"  I'd  just  like  to  come  here  myself  and  read,"  Mrs.  Ha- 
mill  declared,  looking  about  her  with  enthusiasm.  "  I 
never  had  such  a  beautiful  reading-room  to  revel  in.  I 
feel  like  applying  for  a  position  in  the  Works,  Mr.  Rod 
man,  in  order  to  have  a  chance  to  come  here  and  complete 
my  education." 

"  Membership  isn't  conditioned  on  employment  in  the 
Works,"  Rodman  assured  her.  "  I  am  more  ambitious 
than  that,  and  you  are  the  first  indication  that  my  ambi 
tion  hasn't  run  away  with  me.  I  will  have  a  duplicate 
key  made  for  your  special  benefit,  and  you  can  come  over 
in  the  afternoons  and  be  assured  of  undisturbed  posses 
sion.  Miss  Mabie  and  I  have  concluded  that  we  wouldn't 
expect  the  resident  book-worms  to  give  up  more  than 
their  evenings  to  it." 

"Well,  it  is  beautiful.  Don't  you  think  it  is  beautiful, 
Rob?"  she  demanded,  appealing  to  her  husband  for  re 
sponsive  enthusiasm.  He  was  already  deep  in  one  of  the 
volumes  which  he  had  taken  down  from  the  shelf,  but  he 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  141 

looked  up  at  the  sound  of  his  name  with  a  confused  sense 
that  he   was    being  called   upon   somewhere  in   the   outer 

world. 

"  Why,  yes,"  he  said,  in  general  acquiescence.  "  Where 
did  you  find  this  old  edition  of  Lamb,  Rodman  ?  Don't 
you  know  it  is  a  rare  one  ?  " 

"  No,  I  didn't  notice  the  edition.  It  is  one  of  my  old 
books.  Take  it  over  to  your  own  library  if  it  is  anything 
you  care  for." 

"  Oh,  no,  no,"  he  protested,  but  so  Imgeringly  that  they 
all  laughed,  and  Miss  Estee  interfered  in  support  of  his 
desires  against  his  politeness  ; 

"  You  might  as  well,  Prof.  Hamill.  A  Lamb  with  any 
other  date  will  serve  as  well.  A  fifty-cent  edition  here 
will  be  newer  and  nicer." 

"Oh,  I'll  send  another  copy  over  if  I  may  exchange 
with  you.  That  is  a  happy  suggestion,  Miss  Estee.  I 
wonder —  "  And  he  began  assiduously  to  examine  the 
title-pages  of  the  other  books  with  an  eagerness  that 
banished  all  thought  of  time  and  people. 

"  Why  didn't  you  think  of  establishing  your  reading- 
room  on  our  side,  Mr.  Rodman,  where  you  would  be  sure 
of  appreciation  ?"  asked  Mrs.  Hamill.  "  But  I  think  it  is 
lovely  where  it  is  and  it  is  going  to  be  a  great  success, 
and  we  are  proud  to  know  the  founder." 

It  was  all  very  gay  and  pleasant,  and  Paul  began  to 
think  that  there  were  a  good  many  compensations  for  the 
sacrifice  the  new  life  had  involved,  but  what  repaid  him 
most,  after  all,  was  the  look  in  Joyce's  eyes  when  she  said, 
quite  low,  so  that  no  one  else  could  hear, 

"  I  like  it." 

The  only  trouble  about  the  reading-room  scheme  proved 
to  be  that  the  enthusiasm  was  exclusively  on  the  side  of 
the  projectors.  The  other  people  looked  at  it  askance, 
and  with  a  queer  mingling  of  pride  and  independence  and 


I42  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

indifference  they  passively  took  the  position  that  the 
reading-room,  as  the  scheme  of  an  employer,  might  cover 
something  they  would  better  be  on  their  guard  against. 
They  preferred  the  freedom  for  discussion  which  the 
door-step  of  a  neighbor  or  the  bar-room  offered,  and  as 
for  reading,  they  liked  to  select  their  own  '  mental 
pabulum.  The  rare  edition  of  Lamb  would  hardly  have 
been  injured,  for  after  the  first  week,  when  a  stray  visitor 
or  two  dropped  in  for  a  lonesome  hour,  the  room  was  let 
gloriously  alone.  Paul  looked  in  every  day  at  the  begin 
ning,  but  afterwards  he  rather  perferred  to  take  another 
street.  He  had  a  self-conscious  feeling  that  perhaps  lack 
of  proper  leadership  was  the  cause  of  the  failure,  and  that 
with  a  different  sort  of  man  at  the  front  it  might  have 
proved  a  very  different  thing  for  everybody.  But  he 
wasn't  a  different  sort  of  man.  He  was  his  own  sort, 
and  if  he  didn't  learn  much  of  anything  else  he  was  in  a 
fair  way  to  learn  something  about  humility. 

But  Joyce  believed  in  him,  and  so  did  Mrs.  Hamill.  He 
took  what  comfort  he  could  out  of  their  feminine  faith, 
because  it  was  about  all  the  external  support  he  received 
at  that  time.  The  professor  approved  of  the  theories  he 
espoused,  but  prudently  evaded  committing  himself  re 
garding  the  practical  details.  Hale  said  some  uncom 
fortable  things  which  it  was  better  to  forget,  and  Ben 
Baily,  whose  opinion  ranked  higher  than  he  knew,  held  off 
in  chill  disapproval.  Paul  began  to  wonder  whether  Karl 
Bahrdt  couldn't  be  induced  to  come  down  to  Herewurd 
for  a  vacation,  and,  incidentally,  to  lend  a  little  moral 
support  to  a  somewhat  unsteady  experimenter,  but  a.-. 
long  as  everything  kept  smooth  on  the  surface  he  re 
frained  from  hoisting  a  signal  of  distress.  But  one  day 
his  foreman  came  to  him.  manifestly  in  an  agitated  state 
of  mind.  He  had  brought  numerous  documents  to  bul 
wark  up  his  courage,  and  he  proceeded  to  lay  a  number  of 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  143 

{ 

enigmatical  papers  before  Paul.  These,  according  to  his 
interpretation  of  the  symbols,  seemed  to  indicate  that  the 
business  was  at  present  running  at  a  loss.  Paul  had  de 
clared  that  he  was  not  going  into  business  for  the  purpose 
of  making  a  fortune,  but  he  saw,  without  having  the  point 
emphasized  further,  that  a  business  which  didn't  at  least 
pay  its  own  expenses  would  soon  be  among  the  experi 
ments  of  the  past,  if  its  continuance  depended  on  him. 
He  listened  to  the  explanations  of  Cummings,  who  had 
been  Ned  Rodman's  foreman  too  long  to  view  the  present 
course  of  events  with  anything  approaching  equanimity, 
and  when  the  situation  was  made  clear  he  asked,  humbly 
enough, 

"  Well,  what  would  you  suggest  ?  You  know  more  about 
the  business  than  I  do." 

"  We  must  go  back  to  the  old  scale  of  wages,"  cried 
Cummings,  stuttering  in  the  haste  of  his  answer. 

But  Paul  winced  at  that.  The  experiment  had  only 
been  running  a  few  weeks,  and  it  would  be  hard  to  have 
to  confess  it  a  failure  so  soon. 

"No,  you  must  think  of  something  else." 

"  Then  we  must  shut  down  part  of  the  time,  or  work 
with  half  force.  There  isn't  work  enough  to  keep  the 
factory  running,  to  say  nothing  of  paying." 

"  Oh  !  "  said  Rodman.  He  had  rather  taken  for  granted 
that  the  work  was  there  on  demand,  like  other  resources 
of  nature,  and  that  all  there  was  to  do  was  to  be  ready  for 
it.  A  vision  rose  before  him  now  of  an  outside  public 
holding  aloof,  and  he  remembered  certain  magazines 
which  he  had  seen  only  to  smile  at  before,  devoted  to  the 
art  and  science  of  advertising.  There  were  many  factors 
in  this  problem,  it  appeared.  "Why  doesn't  the  work 
come  in  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  Competition  is  sharp,  that's  the  chief  reason.  I  have 
had  to  refuse  several  orders  from  old  customers,  because 

\ 


144  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

if  I  took  them,  at  the  market  price  for  furniture  and  at 
the  wages  we  are  paying,  it  would  have  been  doing  the 
work  at  a  loss.  If  you  won't  reduce  the  wages — 

"  Not  yet." 

"Then  we  will  have  to  ask  more  for  the  work  than 
other  factories  do." 

"  Well,  can't  we  do  better  work  ?  " 

"  I'm  not  sure  that  we  can,  or  that  people  care  to  pay 
for  better  work,  if  it  costs  more.  They  always  want  the 
cheapest  thing." 

"You  say  you  have  already  refused  orders  from  old 
customers.  Why  didn't  you  tell  me  about  it  ? '' 

Cummings'  eye  shifted,  and  he  muttered  something 
about  having  always  made  the  bids,  but  Paul  shrewdly 
suspected  that  he  considered  his  employer  unequal  to 
dealing  with  the  situation.  He  didn't  have  enough  per 
sonal  vanity  to  resent  it,  but  it  made  him  rather  serious. 

"  We  must  bring  in  more  business,"  he  said  at  last,  after 
a  pause  which  he  had  devoted  to  considering  several  sub 
jects  besides  the  one  immediately  at  hand.  "  That  is 
where  the  trouble  is, — not  with  the  scale  of  wages.  Ab 
stractly,  that  is  low  enough.  If  we  were  crowded  with 
paying  orders,  the  balance  sheet  would  be  all  right, 
wouldn't  it?" 

"  Why,  yes,  I  suppose  so." 

"Very  well,  then  I  shall  advertise  the  business.  That  is 
the  modern  net  used  by  the  fishers  of  men.  You  go  right 
ahead,  Cummings,  and  never  mind  if  business  is  dull  for 
a  season.  Keep  the  men  at  something,  and  stand  ready 
to  take  care  of  the  work  when  it  comes  piling  in,  in  answer 
to  my  seductive  advertisements.  I'll  make  a  circular  this 
afternoon  that  will  convince  every  furniture  dealer  in  the 
country  that  he  is  missing  the  opportunity  of  his  life  if 
he  doesn't  order  his  goods  of  the  Rodman  factory." 

That  sounded  businesslike  and  confident,  and  it  visibly 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  145 

restored  Cummings'  courage  to  continue  the  struggle. 
He  went  away,  and  Paul  set  to  work  at  the  new  depart 
ment.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  he  actually  did  bring  some 
animation  into  the  sluggish  business  by  his  advertising 
efforts  within  the  next  few  weeks,  and  the  gloom  was  tem 
porarily  lifted  from  Cummings'  brow.  But  Rodman  came 
to  have  a  deep-seated  conviction  that  there  are  more 
things  in  a  furniture  factory  than  are  dreamed  of  in  phi 
losophy. 

He  had  not  meant  to  tell  Joyce  Mabie  of  this  episode, 
but  when  he  saw  her  he  did.  It  was  much  easier  to  tell 
her  than  not  to,  even  though  it  came,  unfortunately,  as  a 
sort  of  climax  to  the  reading-room  fiasco.  But  he  told 
her  when  no  one  else  was  around,  and  though  he  did  not 
ask  her  not  to  mention  it,  he  knew  she  would  not.  She 
listened  with  a  serious  attention  that  caught  his  words 
almost  before  they  were  spoken,  and  that  was  very  con 
soling.  But  when  he  left  her,  he  wrote  the  long  deferred 
letter  to  Karl  Bahrdt. 


XIV. 

ALL  this  time,  no  further  word  had  come  to  Joyce  from 
her  father.  He  had  always  been  a  careless  correspondent, 
yet  she  could  not  but  attribute  his  present  silence  to 
something  more  than  carelessness,  and  her  anxiety  was 
not  lessened  by  the  fact  that  she  fostered  it  in  secret.  It 
was  impossible,  with  her  temperament,  to  discuss  such  a 
matter,  even  with  Drusilla  Hamill.  She  kept  her  fears  to 
herself,  sometimes  telling  herself  that  there  was  nothing 
to  fear,  sometimes  trying  to  find  escape  from  the  haunt 
ing  doubt  by  plunging  into  the  books  Karl  Bahrdt  had 
left  with  her,  and  which  were  certainly  not  of  the  sort  to 
magnify  personal  concerns. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  this  preoccupation  had  some 
thing  to  do  with  the  difficulty  which  Rodman  found,  and 
which  he  grew  daily  more  unwilling  to  submit  to,  in  in 
ducing  her  to  transfer  some  of  her  interest  in  his  work  to 
the  worker.  He  had  devoted  himself  to  his  task  with  a 
zest  that  would  have  surprised  some  of  his  old  friends, 
although  the  thought  did  occur  to  him  at  times  that  there 
was  more  inspiration  in  drawing  a  fine  plan  than  in  cart 
ing  the  bricks  for  it.  But  there  were  compensations, 
when  it  was  only  to  climb  a  steep  street  and  push  open 
a  gate  freighted  with  an  old  brown  stone  to  let  yourself 
into  a  clover-grown  orchard,  where  the  matted  blossoms 
brushed  out  their  sweetness  against  your  ankles  and 
where  the  shadows  wove  a  circle  of  enchantment  under 
each  tree.  There  one  perchance  might  find  a  lady  ready 
to  take  one's  reports  from  the  street  and  turn  them  into 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  147 

•\ 

visions  to  suit  the  orchard  sweetness  and  the  June  sky 
lifting  itself  above  the  woven  branches  ;  there  one  might 
listen  and  watch  the  gleam  in  her  eyes,  like  the  gleam 
that  hides  in  still,  brown  pools  till  the  sun  strikes  them. 
How  long  is  it  to  endure  ?  That  is  a  suggestion  that 
comes  from  the  street  beyond  the  hedge,  and  the  proper 
retort  may  well  be  that  the  sky's  arch  lasts  while  molten 
planets  turn  into  mud  and  their  children's  children  into 
whirling  lumps  of  frozen  matter. 

.Sometimes  Paul  told  of  the  lands  where  he  had  wan 
dered  and  the  peopre  he  had  seen,  and  though  Mrs.  Ham- 
ill  joined  in  and  Jamie  dug  his  elbows  into  the  ground  to 
prop  his  chin  while  he  listened,  there  was  really  only  one 
auditor  whom  he  saw.  After  a  while  he  came  to  know 
very  well  what  keys  to  touch  to  bring  the  light  that  was 
his  reward  into  her  eyes.  He  soon  came  to  reserve  such 
stories  to  tell  when  they  were  alone.  Curiously  enough,  in 
spite  of  her  practical  and  even  prosaic  theories  of  action, 
it  was  idealism,  heroism,  splendid  achievements,  that 
touched  her  most  quickly.  With  a  lover's  instinct  of 
comprehension,  he  made  some  guess  at  the  facts  of  her 
life  which  had  led  her  to  think  she  could  find,  in  this 
work  of  Karl  Bahrdt's,  the  element  of  devotion  to  an  ideal 
which  was  otherwise  somewhat  difficult  of  access.  Mrs. 
Hamill,  on  the  other  hand,  looked  upon  the  whole  social 
istic  fabric  with  distrust,  feeling  that  both  Joyce's  instincts 
and  theories  were  at  too  high  a  tension. 

"  It  is  just  Mr.  Jefferson  and  his  theory  of  life  over 
again,"  she  cried  one  day.  "You  may  think,  Joyce  Ma- 
bie,  that  it  is  all  very  fine  to  go  and  immure  yourself  in  a 
stone  tower,  and  gradually  freeze  your  wife  to  death  and 
drive  your  daughter  to  running  away  with  the  first  man 
who  will  take  pity  on  her  and  help  her  to  escape.  You 
may  call  it  fine  names  and  think  it  is  philosophical,  but  it 
isn't  human  and  it  isn't  natural  and  I  won't  say  I  believe 


148  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

in  it  or  admire  it,  because  I  don't.  I  think  it  is  wicked. 
Yes,  I  do.  People  weren't  made  for  that." 

"  Have  you  found  out  what  they  were  made  for  ?"  asked 
the  Professor  with  his  teasing  smile. 

"  Why,  to  live  natural  and  healthy  lives,  and  that  will 
mean  happy  lives " 

"  Mr.  Jefferson  is  happy.  I  know  of  no  one  of  whom 
that  could  be  said  more  surely." 

"  But  it  isn't  the  right  way,"  she  cried  with  a  little 
quiver  in  her  voice.  "  It  isn't,  it  isn't  !  You  know  it 
isn't,  Rob,  and  you  ought  not  to  eve\  pretend  that  you 
think  it  is,  because  here  is  Joyce  just  ready  to  go  off  and 
join  a  sisterhood,  or  something  dreadful — 

"  If  that  will  make  her  happy,  it  won't  be  dreadful. 
Isn't  happiness  your  criterion  ?  " 

"  He  doesn't  mean  it  in  the  least,  Joyce,  and  I  wish  you 
wouldn't  listen  to  him  at  all.  Because  the  best  of  life  isn't 
in  the  striving  and  fret  and  the  ungrateful  neglecting  of 
what  is  near  and  simple  and  true  and  good,  for  something 
that  seems  far  and  fine  and  cold  and  hard, — and  that  I 
don't  believe  is  good  at  all." 

"  The  best  of  life,"  said  the  Professor  gravely,  "  is  to 
have  a  little  house  on  the  left  side  of  High  street  in  Here- 
ward,  half  way  up  the  hill,  and  a  little  boy  named  Jamie 
and  somebody  called  Joyce  or  something  like  that,  and  a 
Mr.  Rodman  to  come  in  pretty  often,  and  a  husband — do 
you  think  he  has  a  right  to  go  in  among  the  conditions?  " 

"  Oh,  Rob,  you  are  too  absurd." 

"  Don't  you  think  that  is  a  pretty  good  recipe  for  hap 
piness,  honestly  now  ?  And  don't  you  feel  like  founding 
a  system  of  philosophy  upon  it, — '  Dru'sOwn  Philosophy,' 
— and  going  out  to  lecture  upon  it  and  expound  its  vir 
tues  as  a  universal  remedy  for  the  various  ills  of  mankind? 
The  price  of  lots  on  the  west  side  of  High  street  will  go 
up  like  smoke,  and  people  will  be  forming  societies  and 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  149 

trying  to  find  little  boys  named  Jamie  and  big  girls  named 
Joyce  to  complete  the  necessary  conditions  of  member 
ship,  and  Dru's  own  philosophy  will  make  the  world  a 
blooming  Paradise." 

"  So  it  would, — much  sooner  than  Mr.  Jefferson's  kind," 
persisted  Dru  defiantly. 

When  she  had  gone  to  the  house  and  the  Professor  had 
followed,  Paul  took  up  the  thread. 

"I  believe  in  happiness,  too,"  he  said,  "and,  like  Mrs. 
Hamill,  I  am  satisfied  with  the  kind  I  have.  It  is  abso 
lutely  perfect  here  to-day,  and  I  haven't  a  wish  in  the 
world.  How  glad  I  am  that  I  am  no  where  else." 

"  I'm  afraid  you  are  in  a  perilous  state  if  you  have  no 
wish  unfulfilled." 

"  Oh,  well,  then  I'll  have  one,"  he  responded  promptly. 
"  On  second  thought,  I'm  not  sure  but  that  it  is  the  pres 
ence  of  a  wish  not  yet  fulfilled,  hovering  in  the  background 
of  the  present,  that  is  filling  this  very  afternoon  to  the 
brim,  as  this  flower-chalice  is  filled  with  sunshine."  He 
bent  his  head  low  over  the  flower  for  a  moment  as  though 
to  drink  it,  and  smiled  softly  to  himself. 

"  What  have  you  been  doing  ?"  she  asked. 

"  I've  been  in  the  nether  world,  trying  to  see  how  things 
look  below.  It  is  dusty,  and  there  is  a  smell  of  grease 
and  a  whirr  of  hot  air  and  a  spinning  of  belts  and  a  flash 
ing  of  knives  that  makes  an  explorer  glad  to  come  back 
to  the  surface  and  breathe  some  clean  oxygen  and  look  at 
— what  a  delightful  old  garden  this  is  ! "  he  added 
hastily. 

"Yes,"  she  said,  but  without  glancing  at  it.  "Tell  me 
what  you  have  found  out  so  far  about  the  people  who 
live  in  your  nether  world.  I  have  sometimes  thought 
when  on  the  sea " 

"Where  have  you  been  on  the  sea?  "he  asked  with 
sudden  interest. 


I5O  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"Out  of  New  York.  And  along  the  coast.  And  long 
ago  when  I  went  across  with  my  father  once." 

"  Isn't  it  the  one  thing  on  earth  worth  coming  to  the 
planet  to  see?  I  beg  pardon.  You  were  going  to  say 
something  about  the  people  at  the  Works  and  I  inter 
rupted  you,  because  you  heedlessly  introduced  a  refer 
ence  to  the  sea,  and  I'm  afraid  I  find  it  much  easier  to 
be  enthusiastic  over  the  sea  than  over  people, — some 
people,  that  is.  I  suppose,  being  a  natural  man,  and  there 
fore,  according  to  the  creed  of  our  grandfathers,  a  de 
praved  creature,  I  love  the  sea  and  such  things  without 
any  effort  of  will,  while  it  takes  a  high  moral  pressure  to 
bring  my  affection  for  people, — some  people,  of  course, — 
to  the  boiling  point.  But  I'm  ready  to  apply  the  pressure. 
You  were  saying " 

He  had  thrown  himself  down  on  the  grass  and  was 
looking  up  at  her  with  the  light  of>a  laugh  in  his  eyes. 

"  You  were  saying,"  she  retorted.  "  I  was  only  carry 
ing  out  your  figure  for  you.  You  spoke  of  them, — those 
people,  you  know, — as  living  under  the  surface,  and  I  was 
only  thinking  what  a  difference  there  is  between  sailing 
over  the  water,  with  soft  winds  and  sunsets  and  music — 

"  And  silken  scarfs  fluttering  in  the  breeze  and  ropes 
of  roses  trailing  out  behind.  You  might  as  well  have 
them  all  in.  They  cost  no  more, — in  a  picture." 

"  Well,  the  difference  between  that  and  the  life  down  at 
the  bottom  seems  wicked,  doesn't  it  ? " 

"  Oh,  I  don't  know.  You  might  not  like  it  down  at  the 
bottom,  perhaps,  but  I'm  not  sure  that  the  deep  sea  fishes 
and  the  wriggling  monsters  would  like  it  any  better  in 
your  silken  boat.  They'd  suffocate." 

She  laughed,  but  checked  the  laugh  with  a  little  shake 
of  the  head. 

"  I  don't  believe  that  figures  of  speech  are  safe,  mixed 
in  with  arguments.  They  do  very  well  in  poetry,  but  in 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  I  5  I 

argument,  they  ate  apt  to  tangle  themselves  about  your 
feet  and  trip  you  up.  Do  you  really  think  that  that  hard 
life  suits  the  people  who  do  it  better  than  any  other 
could  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know  what  I  believe,"  he  answered.  "  Perhaps 
I  may  come  to  have  some  ideas  on  the  subject  after 
awhile,  but  they  haven't  budded  yet.  Only  I  have  a  glim 
mering  impression  that  perhaps  I  am  going  to  believe  by 
and  by  that  it  isn't  so  much  the  conditions  as  the  people 
themselves  that  makes  the  difference, — the  people  and 
the  other  people,  you  understand.  But  nobody  does  know 
except  Karl  Bahrdt.  By  the  way,  he  is  coming  down 
very  soon." 

"  Is  he  ?  "  she  cried  quickly,  with  a  change  of  counte 
nance  that  made  him  wonder.  "  I  am  very  glad.  How 
long  will  he  stay  ?  " 

"  As  long  as  I  can  persuade  him.  He  is  an  easy  guest 
to  entertain.  All  that  he  needs  is  a  pipe,  a  problem,  and 
an  inner  consciousness.  On  a  pinch  he  could  dispense 
with  the  pipe,  but  I  mean  to  make  him  happy  while  he  is 
here." 

"  I  believe  that  is  what  you  like  best  to  do,"  she  said 
softly. 

A  quick  flush  of  pleasure  came  over  his  face  at  her  tone 
more  than  her  words. 

"  I  have  confessed  to  having  a  preference  for  being 
happy  myself." 

"  Some  people  can't  be." 

"And  some  people  won't  be,"  he  said,  letting  his  laugh 
ing  eyes  rest  on  hers.  "  They  feel  it  their  vocation  to  be 
martyrs  whenever  there  is  any  opportunity.  I  admire  them 
more  than  I  can  tell  you,  but  I  can't  undertake  to  emulate 
them." 

"  You  could  if  there  were  need." 

"Well, — let  us   try  to   believe   so   until  it  is  disproven. 


152  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

The  trouble  is,  I  don't  often  see  any  chance  for  martyr 
dom.  Things  almost  always  conspire  in  my  favor." 

"  Except  in  the  matter  of  the  Works." 

"  I'm  not  so  sure  but  that  I  may  in  the  end  count  that 
among  the  most  fortunate  things  in  my  life, — if  something 
doesn't  happen  to  blot  the  day  out  of  my  sky." 

"  How  terrible  !     You  don't  anticipate  that  ?" 

"I'm  not  going  to  think  about  it,  for  fear  it  might  be 
tempting  fate.  But  will  you  promise  to  avert  it  if  you 
can  ? " 

"  I  ?     How  could  I  ?  " 

"Will  you  promise?" 

"  No.     I  don't  promise  blindly." 

"  Prudent  young  woman,"  he  said  mockingly.  "  Then 
I  suppose  I  must  be  content  for  the  present  to  know  that 
I  am  doing  your  work  at  the  Rodman  Works." 

"  My  work  !     No,  indeed,  it  isn't  mine." 

"Oh,  isn't  it?  Very  well,  then,  I'll  drop  it  to-morrow, 
and  all  the  poor  people  may  go  to  rack  and  ruin." 

"Why,  how  absurd  !     It  is  your  own  work." 

"  Not  at  all.  I  don't  know  anything  about  sociology  or 
wood-turning,  either.  If  I  am  going  to  try  this  experi 
ment,  I  want  it  distinctly  understood, — between  you  and 
me,  that  is  ;  we  needn't  announce  it  publicly, — that  it  is 
your  experiment  and  that  I  am  doing  it  solely  and  wholly 
to  please  you." 

"  What  nonsense  !     I  can't " 

"  Didn't  you  suggest  it  the  first  time  I  saw  you  ?  Didn't 
you  inspire  me  with  your  own  idea  that  it  would  be  a 
nobler  thing  to  ruin  myself  in  a  sociological  experiment 
than  to  make  a  sordid  fortune  in  the  regulation  way,  or  a 
famous  discovery  in  my  way  ?  Didn't  you  make  me  stay 
when  I  was  going  to  go  and  didn't  you  talk  till  you  set  me 
aglow  with  reflected  light  ?  Come,  own  up  !  Hasn't  it 
been  your  doing  from  beginning  to  end  ?  " 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  153 

"  But  I  won't  be  responsible  for  your  experiment  !  I 
certainly  won't !  " 

"You  are  responsible.  I  am  simply  asking  that  you 
recognize  the  fact, — when  we  talk  it  over  together,  I 
mean." 

"No,  no,"  she  protested,  laughing. 

"But  of  course  !  What  am  I  but  your  agent,  your  fac 
tor,  your  squire,  in  carrying  out  your  grand  idea  ? " 

"  It  is  your  own  idea  !  " 

"  Then  you  give  me  full  leave  and  license  to  do  what  I 
please  with  it  ? " 

She  looked  irresolute.  There  was  too  much  of  the  mis 
chievous  school-boy  in  his  eye  to  risk  a  careless  permis 
sion.  "  I'm  afraid  you  are  not  to  be  trusted,"  she  said 
doubtingly. 

"  Then  you  are  not  willing  to  surrender  your  right  to  a 
controlling  vote  ?  Oh,  well,  that  is  all  I  wanted  settled. 
It  is  only  a  business  understanding,  but  it  is  well  to  have 
business  details  perfectly  clear.  I  don't  think  that  we 
need  to  explain  the  terms  of  the  contract  to  Bahrdt — un 
less  you  wish  it  ?  No  ?  All  right.  He  shall  help  us 
out  with  our  experiment  without  knowing  that  it  is  all 
your  affair.  I  don't  remember  that  there  is  anything  else 
in  the  way  of  business  to  discuss  this  afternoon,"  he 
remarked  ruminatingly,  as  he  picked  up  the  straw  hat 
that  had  rolled  away  on  the  grass  and  held  out  his  hand 
to  her.  But  she  withheld  her  own  with  a  piqued  air. 

"  Good-bye,"  she  said  coolly. 

"  Won't  you  shake  hands  ?  " 

"  It  isn't  necessary." 

"  I  wasn't  urging  it  as  a  matter  of  necessity.  Call  it  a 
matter  of  pleasure." 

"  It  would  be  no  pleasure  to  me." 

"  A  matter  of  duty,  then.  It  is  your  duty  to  confer  pleas 
ure  on  any  stray  member  of  the  human  family,  isn't  it  ?  " 


154  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"You  implied  a  while  ago  that  I  am  too  much  given  to 
unnecessary  martyrdom.  I  am  going  to  mend  my  ways." 

"  Oh,  if  it  would  be  martyrdom  to  shake  hands  with  me," 
he  said,  in  a  tone  so  deeply  wounded  that  she  was  filled 
with  compunction  at  carrying  things  so  far. 

"  Oh,  I  didn't  mean  that,"  she  cried  penitently.  And 
she  held  out  her  hand. 

He  took  it,  and  held  it  rather  more  firmly  than  was 
necessary. 

"  Thank  you,"  he  said,  and  there  was  open,  undisguised, 
unpardonable  triumph  in  his  look  and  in  his  voice.  "  I 
shall  remember  for  future  use  that  your  obduracy  is  only 
to  be  shaken  by  a  touch  of  pathos — 

But  by  this  time  she  had  wrenched  her  hand  away  and 
sprung  back  to  face  him  with  flaming  cheeks  and  eyes 
where  storm  mingled  with  laughter. 

"  Tell  Mrs.  Hamill  I  was  sorry  that  a  prior  engagement 
would  have  made  it  impossible  for  me  to  stay  to  tea,  if  she 
was  thinking  of  asking  me.  She  may  take  the  hint  for 
the  next  time.  Good-afternoon,  and  remember."  He 
lifted  his  hat  with  an  audacious  smile,  and  went  off, 
reflecting  contentedly  that  at  least  he  had  succeeded  in 
arousing  her  temporarily  from  her  abstract  interest  in 
humanity  in  general  with  its  exasperating  accompaniment 
of  indifference  to  humanity  in  particular. 


XV. 

A  FEW  days  later  Joyce  saw  Karl  Bahrdt.  She  was  re 
turning  from  the  Post  Office,  where  she  had  presented  her 
customary  petition  for  a  letter  and  had  been  put  off  with 
the  customary  refusal,  when  he  came  down  the  street  with 
Paul  Rodman.  Bahrdt's  face,  dark,  eager,  intense  as 
usual,  was  lit  with  an  unusual  animation.  It  was  not 
often  he  looked  so  happy, — but  then  she  had  not  often 
seen  him  with  Rodman.  It  struck  her  with  a  little  sur 
prise  that  Rodman,  slight,  sunny,  serene,  should  be  able  to 
influence  a  man  whose  power  had  always  seemed  to  her 
indisputable,  but  the  slight  signs  of  feeling  in  Bahrdt's  look, 
which  she  understood  so  well  and  which  others  were  so 
apt  to  misunderstand,  revealed  something  that  made  her 
unconsciously  take  a  more  respectful  attitude  toward  Paul. 

They  caught  sight  of  Joyce  in  a  moment  and  came 
toward  her  quickly. 

"  Ah,  surely  it  is  in  this  little  town  you  live.  I  hoped  I 
should  find  you,  but  I  knew  not  it  would  be  in  the  first 
street,"  Bahrdt  said,  and  the  little  accent  in  his  familiar 
voice  brought  back  to  her  a  hundred  memories.  His 
dark  face  was  lit  with  a  brightness  that  had  a  pathetic 
quality  because  of  its  rarity,  though  in  itself  it  was  hope 
ful  enough. 

"  Mr.  Rodman  said  you  were  coming.  I  am  so  glad  to 
see  you." 

Mr.  Rodman  had  watched  their  greeting  with  a  more 
narrowly  observant  eye  than  seemed  absolutely  necessary 
or  than  he  was  perhaps  wholly  conscious  of.  At  any  rate, 


156  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

he  probably  saw  nothing  to  occasion  him  any  discom 
posure,  for  his  face  emerged  from  its  momentary  shadow 
with  a  cheering  radiance. 

"Oh,  Hereward  isn't  big  enough  to  hide  in, — and  Miss 
Mabie  knows  it  would  be  useless  for  her  to  attempt  it, 
even  if  it  were.  I  suppose,  though,  I  might  just  as  well 
remember  a  pressing  engagement  at  the  other  end  of  the 
town,  eh,  Karl  ?  " 

"Oh,  I  have  much  more  to  say  and  to  come  to  an 
understanding  of,"  he  answered  anxiously,  with  a  supreme 
disregard  of  Joyce  that  made  her  exchange  amused  looks 
with  Paul.  - 

"When  will  you  come  to  see  my  friend,  Mrs.  Hamill  ?" 
she  asked. 

"  Go  now,  Karl,  and  I'll  call  for  you  there,  and  then 
we'll  talk  over  many  things  all  afternoon,  and  I  will  do 
my  humble  best  to  understand  as  many  of  them  as  possi 
ble.  Honestly  I  will,  and  no  shirking  !  Till  then — " 
He  nodded,  raised  his  hat,  and  left  them,  with  a  joyous 
content  in  his  heart.  They  weren't  lovers  !  He  knew 
enough  about  love  himself  just  now  to  be  sure  of  that.  It 
was  rather  unaccountable,  to  be  sure,  that  anyone  could 
have  had  the  supreme  privilege  of  meeting  Joyce  Mabie 
intimately  in  her  father's  house  without  learning  to  love 
her,  but  it  was  a  blessed  and  beneficent  fact  that  some 
men  were  blind.  And  what  a  delightful  fellow  Karl  was 
with  his  theories  blinding  him  to  the  beautiful  things  of 
ordinary  life  !  Whereupon  he  fell  to  whistling  the  gayest 
air  he  could  remember  and  to  planning  many  things  for 
Karl's  delectation. 

Joyce  had  turned  to  Bahrdt  with  the  instant  inquiry, 

"  Have  you  seen  my  father,  Mr.  Bahrdt  ?  Do  you 
know  where  he  is  ?  " 

He  gave  her  a  quick  look  that  demanded  everything 
and  revealed  nothing. 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  1$? 

"  No." 

"  Neither  do  I,"  she  exclaimed,  and  she  lifted  her  hands 
with  a  slight  gesture  that  from  one  so  undemonstrative 
betrayed  much. 

He  was  silent,  walking  by  her  side  with  bent  head  as 
though  waiting,  and  she  continued  in  a  hurried  undertone 
that  was  very  unlike  her  usual  calm  : 

"  I  would  not  wonder  so  much,  because  he  never  wrote 
very  often, — only  when  the  mood  came  and  then  it  was 
oftener  a  funny  sketch  than  a  letter,— but  to  go  away  with 
scarcely  a  word  and  then  to  keep  silence  so  long — some 
thing  may  have  happened.  He  may  be  ill  somewhere, — 
he  may  need  me." 

He  had  been  observing  her  narrowly,  and  he  saw  that 
she  was  ignorant  of  the  rumor  which  had  followed  so 
soon  upon  Tom  Garner's  disappearance  of  a  reason  why 
..it-  might  have  been  prudent  for  him  to  disappear.  Well, 
was  it  neceseary  for  him  to  repeat  it  ?  Rumors  be  con 
founded  !  He  sighed  with  vexation  and  impatience,  and 
the  old  look  of  authority  came  back. 

"  He  is  not  ill.  It  would  not  be  impossible  for  him  to 
write.  No,  he  is  off  at  his  own  will,  and  a  wild  will  you 
surely  know  it  always  has  been.  You  know  it  is  not  for 
you  to  control  it." 

"  But  I  want  to  know  where  he  is.  I  cannot  tell  you 
how  anxious  I  am.  It  keeps  coming  between  me  and 
everything  else." 

"  Put  !  You  talk  like  a  child.  You  have  your  own 
work  to  do  and  must  not  be  so  easily  turned  aside.  Is  it 
so  little  to  you,  this  work  you  are  fitting  yourself  for,  that 
any  vexation  can  upset  your  mind  and  make  you  forget 
it  ?  I  have  told  you  before  that  you  must  not  be  too 
much  the  woman  if  you  would  be  anything  more." 

Joyce  turned  upon  him  with  swift  intensity. 

"  You   entirely  disregard  the  fact  that  he  is  my  father, 


158  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

and  that  I  love  him  and  that  where  we  love  we  must  fear. 
You  can't  eliminate  that  with  all  your  philosophy, — even 
you  must  recognize  it." 

"Must?"  he  repeated  with  light  mockery.  "  No,  it  is 
not  my  nature  to  love.  Perhaps  I  do  not  rightly  under 
stand  the  power  that  lies  in  that  word.  Perhaps  I  am 
blind, — but  truly  it  seems  to  me  that  the  men  and  women 
who  let  this  love  you  talk  of  dull  their  brains  and  betray 
their  purpose  and  hamper  their  usefulness  in  the  world, 
are  the  ones  who  are  blind.  You  love  your  father,  you 
say,  and  straightway  you  fall  to  trembling  like  a  hare  over 
his  fate  instead  of  thinking  what  you  have  to  do.  No, 
truly  I  do  not  understand  what  love  is." 

Almost  without  knowing  it,  they  had  reached  the  little 
wicket-gate  of  the  Hamills'  garden.  Joyce  put  her  hand 
upon  it. 

"  You  will  come  in  ?  " 

"  Yes,  I  will  come  in,  for  I  have  more  to  say  to  you. 
Ah,  it  is  here  that  you  live,  in  this  garden  of  a  poet's 
fancy?"  He  looked  about  him  with  smiling  cynicism  as 
they  entered.  "  Perfume  and  beauty  and  swinging  idle 
ness.  I  understand  why  you  have  grown  to  tremble 
before  the  facts  of  life  and  to  deem  love  stronger  than 
courage.  After  all,  it  needs  a  garret  and  a  crust  to  breed 
high  thoughts.  It  is  perilous  for  one  who  would  be  true 
to  himself  to  dally  with  beauty — or  with  love." 

He  laughed  softly  as  he  glanced  at  her  with  a  gleam  of 
sarcastic  amusement,  and  then  suddenly  he  added, 

"  So  you  have  houris  in  your  paradise  !  Truly,  it  is 
most  fitting." 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?     Oh  !  " 

It  was  only  Edith  Estee,  but  even  a  philosopher,  social 
ist  and  vowed  ascetic  might  be  pardoned  for  naming  her 
an  houri.  She  possessed  that  crown  of  a  beauty  which 
has  its  basis  in  physical  perfection,  the  gift  of  being  beau- 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  159 

tiful  at  all  times.  There  were  moments  when  Joyce,  for 
instance,  was  beautiful  only  to  those  who  were  too  fond 
of  her  to  be  judicial,  but  Edith's  face  did  not  need  a 
partial  eye.  Melancholy  suited  it  as  well  as  smiles,  and 
every  change  that  passed  over  it  was  a  new  revelation. 
As  she  came  toward  them  now,  over  the  clovers  that  were 
lightly  swept  under  by  the  trailing  edge  of  her  gown,  the 
spell  of  her  springtime  face  seemed  a  part  of  the  spell  of 
the  springtime  weather  and  the  beautiful  day. 

She  gave  Joyce  a  meaning  glance  as  she  approached, 
and  with  an  answering  smile  Joyce  formally  presented 
Mr.  Bahrdt. 

"Do  you  know,  Mr.  Bahrdt,  that  Joyce  is  always  quot 
ing  you  when  she  advances  some  wild  theory?"  Edith 
said  gaily,  looking  up  through  a  bewildering  fringe  of 
hazel  lashes.  "Are  you  coming  down  here  to  make  us 
all  socialists  against  our  will  ?  " 

"Would  it  be  against  your  will?"  he  asked  with  an 
uneasy  doubt  in  his  voice  that  made  Joyce  smile  and 
wonder. 

"  Oh,  that  would  depend  upon  which  side  of  the  line  I 
arn  on,  and  that  I  don't  know.  If  my  possessions  would 
be  increased  by  an  equal  division  of  all  property,  then  I 
am  in  favor  of  socialism,  but  if  they  would  be  decreased, 
then  I  am  not  in  favor  of  it  at  all." 

"Oh,  you  are  thinking  of  communism,"  he  said  eagerly. 
"That  is  not  what  I  try  to  bring  about.  But  perhaps 
you  will  not  care  to  have  me  explain  ?" 

Edith  laughed  and  shook  her  head.  "  Oh,  I  don't  know 
anything  about  it  !  " 

"  Would  it  bore  you  to  have  me  tell?  Yet,  truly,  some 
people  do  their  share  by  simply  bein£  what  they  are,"  he 
added,  with  an  air  of  formulating  an  abstraction.  And  he 
didn't  realize  that  he  had  perpetrated  a  compliment  till 
Edith's  blush  and  smile  of  pleasure  brought  a  reflected 


l6o  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

blush  of  utter  confusion  upon  himself.  Then  without 
further  parley  he  walked  abruptly  away,  and  Joyce  turned 
to  Edith  with  a  silent  laugh  in  her  eyes. 

"  You  musn't  tease  him  !  He  doesn't  understand  that 
language." 

"  Is  that  your  Mr.  Bahrdt  ?  Why  didn't  you  ever  say  he 
looked  like  that  ?  Goodness,  what  eyes  he  has  !  I  don't 
wonder  he  stirs  an  audience.  I  believe  I  would  follow  him 
to  the  north  pole  if  he  looked  at  me  and  commanded  it 
with  those  eyes." 

"  Shall  I  tell  him  so  ?  " 

"  Heavens,  no  !  I  wouldn't  have  him  know  for  the 
world."  She  laughed  and  ran  away  with  simulated  ter 
ror,  and  Joyce  quickly  overtook  Bahrdt. 

"  She  is  himmel-schon,  your  friend,"  he  said  with  a  cu 
rious  abstraction  and  without  looking  up.  Then,  putting 
the  subject  away,  he  added  with  a  return  to  his  decisive 
manner,  "  Before  we  go  in,  where  I  cannot  speak  to  you 
alone,  I  wish  to  say  one  word  more.  Shall  it  be  here? 
Yes?" 

He  leaned  against  the  tree  under  which  they  had 
paused  and  turned  his  compelling  eyes  upon  her  with  an 
intensity  that  made  her  shrink. 

"  When  the  time  comes  that  you  learn  for  yourself  how 
bitter  the  world  is,  remember, — and  this  is  all  I  wish  to 
say  to  you, — remember  that  you  will  find  your  true  voca 
tion  and  happiness  in  work  that  is  not  personal,  that  has 
larger  ends  than  your  own  happiness.  That  time  will 
come.  It  must  come  to  all  sooner  or  later,  and  to  you  it 
may  come  very  soon." 

"  Why  ? "  she  asked  with  startled  eyes.  The  words 
seemed  to  hold  a  menace. 

"  Why  ?  Because,  my  child,  you  may  soon  learn  how 
unjust  the  world  is.  That  will  be  the  last  lesson  needed 
by  one  like  you,  who  can  see  clearly  the  wrongs  under 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  l6l 

which  the  best  part  of  humanity  labors  and  yet  can  be 
lieve,  with  fatal  optimism,  that  methods  which  have 
brought  about  only  wrong  will  somehow,  if  let  alone,  turn 
into  good.  The  world  in  general  is  not  honest  or  reason 
able  or  helpful.  You  will  find  this  when  your  fair  friends 
turn  from  you.  Human  companionship, — human  love, — 
it  is  good.  I  do  not  deny  that.  But  you  will  not  find  it 
among  these  people  whose  idol  is  respectability  and  whose 
creed  is  conformity.  You  think  I  am  too  hard  ?  Wait  till 
you  feel  the  scorn  and  the  coldness  with  which  these  deli 
cate  ladies,  like  that  beautiful  one  we  saw,  can  turn  from 
you  for  no  fault  of  your  own.  When  you  have  lost  this 
paltry  show  which  is  blinding  your  eyes,  then  you,  too, 
will  see,  you,  too,  will  know,  that  nothing  is  worth  the 
toil  of  living  but  the  possibility  of  working  for  the  good 
of  those  most  wronged  by  this  society  of  our  day,  the  poor 
and  the  ignorant." 

The  torrent  of  his  feeling  carried  Joyce  with  him  in  his 
impassioned  plea.  Her  kindled  eye  and  flushed  cheek 
showed  him  how  deeply  she  responded. 

"What  is  there  I  can  do  ?  If  I  am  needed  in  the  real 
work  of  the  world,  tell  me  so." 

He  took  a  step  toward  her. 

"  And  give  up  these  friends,  their  standards  and  their 
judgment?  Are  you  ready  for  that?  Can  you  forget 
them  ? " 

Joyce  did  not  take  her  eyes  from  him,  but  something 
passed  over  her  face, — a  change  slight  but  unmistakable. 
The  ardor  was  gone.  He  could  not  know  that  they  were 
standing  under  the  trees  where  Paul  Rodman  had  stood 
yesterday,  but  he  saw  the  change  in  her  face,  and  he 
turned  aside  with  a  smothered  sigh. 

"  Not  yet.  Well,  it  will  come,  and  when  it  does  come, 
remember.  Let  us  go  in." 


XVI. 

"  Edith,  I'm  going  to  take  in  this  affair  that  Paul  has 
arranged,  but  you  needn't  bother  about  going.  It  is  '  ma 
terial  '  for  me,  you  know." 

Edith  looked  up  from  her  novel. 

"  Poor  auntie  !  What  a  lot  of  boresome  things  you 
have  to  take  in  as  material  !  What  is  Paul's  affair  ?  " 

"  Oh,  a  sort  of  glorification  of  labor,  with  opportunity 
for  unlimited  speechmaking  and  rant.  It  is  queer  how  he 
has  gone  off  at  a  tangent." 

"  Yes,  isn't  it  ?  "  Edith  assented,  letting  her  eyes  wan 
der  back  to  her  book. 

"  You  don't  care  to  go,  do  you  ? " 

"  Goodness,  no  !     I  don't  have  to  go,  do  I  ? " 

"  No.  I'll  go  with  the  Hamills.  Miss  Mabie  will  go, 
of  course.  That  Mr.  Bahrdt  is  going  to  make  a  speech, 
or  something." 

Edith  shut  her  book  and  looked  suddenly  attentive. 

"  By  the  way,  what  do  you  think  of  him,  Edith  ?  " 

"  Oh,— I  don't  know." 

"  You  haven't  noticed,  probably,  but  he  is  a  curious  foil 
to  Stephen.  I  have  the  greatest  longing  to  see  them  set 
against  each  other  in  some  way.  I  think  I  must  take 
enough  liberty  with  the  facts,  (since  facts  are  by  nature 
too  stupid  to  know  it,)  to  get  them  into  some  sort  of  a 
coil  in  my  novel." 

"  Perhaps,"  said  Edith,  looking  away,  "  perhaps  Joyce 
would  like  to  have  me  go." 

"  Oh,  I  don't  think  she  would  care." 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  163 

"But  she  might,"  the  girl  persisted.  "If  I  went,  it 
would  be  as  a  compliment  to  her, — she  would  understand 
that.  I  think  I'd  better." 

"  Very  well.  I'll  ask  Stephen  to  come  around  and  take 
us." 

"  Oh,  no,  don't  do  that.  I  won't  go  a  step  if  he  comes. 
Let's  go  with  the  Hamills." 

"  What  a  freakish  child  you  are  !  Have  it  your  own 
way,  then."  But  Miss  Estee  fell  into  a  thoughtful  silence 
after  that,  as  she  often  did  when  Edith  betrayed  the  dis 
quiet  into  which  Stephen  Hale's  name  could  throw  her. 
This  adjusting  of  human  relations  was  a  more  serious 
matter  when  it  involved  the  future  welfare  of  one  you 
loved  than  when  only  the  children  of  your  fancy  were  con 
cerned.  A  few  pages  blotted,  and  this  could  be  made 
right  again  ;  but  how  could  a  mistake  in  life  be  corrected  ? 
.The  people  of  one's  fancy  were  simple, — must  be  simple 
to  keep  from  blurring.  But  the  other  people  were  so 
complicated  and  contradictory  !  Stephen  was  admirable 
in  many  ways, — would  be  admirable  even  as  a  husband  if 
he  chose  the  right  sort  of  a  wife.  But  was  Edith  the  one  ? 
Her  heart  ached  with  tenderness  over  the  child,  though 
the  child  herself,  sparkling  with  more  than  her  usual  ani 
mation  when  evening  came,  seemed  in  no  need  of  pity. 

Miss  Estee  had  further  opportunity  to  exercise  her 
lively  faculty  for  speculation  when  Joyce  Mabie  met  her 
in  the  evening  with  shadowed  eyes  and  a  sort  of  electric 
restlessness  under  her  usual  calm. 

"  Xow,  what  is  going  on  behind  the  scenes  ?  You  don't 
know  that  you  are  one  of  my  characters,  young  lady,  but 
you  are,  and  I  have  a  proprietary  right  in  all  your  feelings 
and  opinions.  A  real,  down-right  bit  of  emotion  is  valu 
able  property,  and  if  you  have  such  a  thing  in  your  posses 
sion,  my  dark-eyed  maiden,  I  mean  to  have  it,  by  fair 
means  or — humph  !  I'll  watch,  then." 


164  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

And  watch  she  did,  and  was  rewarded  beyond  her 
expectations. 

They  were  all  waiting  on  the  verandah  in  the  summer 
twilight,  until  it  should  be  time  to  go,  when  there  was  a 
quick  step  on  the  gravel,  and  Paul  Rodman  came  up. 
Joyce  was  in  the  shadow,  but  Miss  Estee  saw  the  instant 
light  that  flashed  into  her  face  at  the  first  sound  of  his 
voice,  and  was  so  gratified  at  her  own  astuteness  as 
almost  to  miss  what  followed. 

"You  are  all  coming?"  he  asked  gaily.  "I'm  under 
personal  obligations.  I  feel  as  though  I  were  manager, 
scene-shifter  and  orchestra  for  this  show,  and  I  want  to 
know  that  I  have  some  sympathy  in  the  audience.  Did 
you  know  I  am  going  to  make  my  maiden  speech  ? " 

Mrs.  Hamill  went  solemnly  up  and  shook  hands  with 
him. 

"  Really  and  truly  ?  And  you  depend  upon  us  for  your 
inspiration  ?  I  never  was  so  set  up  in  my  life.  I'll  do 
my  very  best  to  bring  in  the  applause  at  the  right 
moments.  Dear  me,  I  feel  so  important  and  responsi 
ble." 

"  I'm  glad  someone  is  willing  to  acknowledge  a  share 
in  the  responsibility,"  he  answered,  and  though  he  was 
speaking  to  Mrs.  Hamill  he  stole  a  teasing  glance  at 
Joyce.  "  Now  I  must  go  and  look  up  Karl  Bahrdt.  He's 
my  star.  I  shall  count  upon  seeing  you  in  the  front  rows 
It  is  the  only  thing  I  can  think  of  just  now  that  may  keep 
my  courage  from  failing."  Yet  he  didn't  look  as  though 
he  needed  much  of  a  stimulus. 

The  hall  "  across  the  bridge  "  was  dimly  lit  with  kero 
sene  lamps,  swinging  in  iron  brackets  from  the  window- 
frames,  and  when  the  little  party  under  the  guidance  of 
Professor  Hamill  came  in  and  found  seats  on  a  row  of 
benches  near  the  door,  there  was  already  a  number  of 
men  in  the  room,  some  talking  together  in  excited  groups, 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  165 

some  sitting  apart  in  dull  or  moody  silence.  The  dim 
light  gave  to  it  all  a  weird  aspect,  and  the  workmen  in 
their  rough,  symbolic  garb  seemed  to  loom  up  to  the 
stature  of  a  gigantic  possibility.  There  were  few  women, 
and  they  were  mostly  gaunt  and  stern  and  dressed  with 
the  pronounced  disregard  of  beauty  which  is  apt  to  mark 
the  \voman  reformer.  Miss  Estee  took  note  of  it  all  with 
her  observant  eye. 

"  What  lives  these  women  must  have  led  to  come  to 
look  like  that,"  she  thought  to  herself.  "They  aren't 
women,  wholly.  A  woman  should  be  beautiful.  So 
should  a  man,  for  that  matter.  Unless  he  is  a  character, 
of  course.  Then  good  looks  don't  count.  But  a  woman 
hasn't  much  chance  as  a  character-study.  She  must  be 
beautiful,  in  some  sort  of  way,  or  there  is  no  doing  any 
thing  with  her  in  any  story, — even  the  one  we  call  life. 
.And  these  poor  creatures,  with  their  tragic  faces  and  more 
tragic  dressing, — what  is  the  matter  with  them  ?  They 
are  starved,  that's  what  it  is.  They  ought  to  be  fed  for  a 
whole  generation  on  nothing  but  poetry  and  music  and 
love.  I  wonder  if  they  would  come  out  of  it  like  Edith 
and  Joyce  and  Drusilla  here."  She  turned  to  look  at  the 
three  young  women,  who  were  intently  observant  of  the 
unusual  surroundings.  "  They  have  a  glorified  look,  such 
as  denizens  of  another  sphere  might  wear.  I  suppose 
those  women  see  it  and  resent  it  as  a  part  of  their  birth 
right  of  which  they  have  been  unfairly  defrauded.  Well, 
is  it  fair  ?" 

The  room  slowly  filled.  There  were  young  men,  with 
dark,  sharp  faces,  intelligent,  powerful,  dissatisfied. 
There  were  older  men  with  a  sullen  weariness  of  manner 
that  spoke  of  the  desperation  born  of  the  knowledge  of  a 
losing  battle.  There  were  men  with  ragged  gray  beards 
and  hairy  hands  that  seemed  to  mark  the  third  stage, 
where  the  fire  of  discontent  had  sunk,  through  repeated 


I  66  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

defeat,  into  the  dying  ash  of  impotence.  There  was 
something  oppressive  in  having  the  story  of  their  lives  set 
out  in  living  pictures  before  the  eyes  of  the  world.  Miss 
Estee  felt  accused,  and  glanced  at  her  companions  for 
support.  Joyce  was  watching  the  assembled  crowd  with 
a  serious  intentness  that  was  oblivious  of  everything  else, 
but  there  was  an  electric  quality  in  her  very  silence. 
Edith  was  leaning  back,  with  the  lamp,  overhead,  throw 
ing  its  light  full  upon  her  fair,  wondering  face.  Drusilla, 
clear  womanly  Dru,  had  crept  a  little  closer  to  her  hus 
band's  arm,  though  he,  absorbed  in  enjoying  the  latent 
excitement  communicated  by  a  waiting  multitude,  seemed 
to  take  no  note  of  her. 

Then  there  was  a  stir  as  Rodman  and  Bahrdt  came  in 
and  walked  quickly  up  the  aisle  to  the  desk  at  the  farther 
end  of  the  room.  Mason,  the  favorite  home  orator,  and 
several  other  local  celebrities,  were  already  on  the  plat 
form.  Rodman  was  the  first  to  come  forward,  and  Miss 
Estee  glanced  quickly  at  Joyce. 

"  I  thought  so  !  It  is  well  to  have  one  thing  clear,  and 
I  know  now  where  to  place  you,  Mistress  Joyce.  There 
is  one  thing  that  will  take  the  tragedy  out  of  your  eyes 
and  make  you  as  tremulously  pretty  as  though  you  had  no 
more  brains  than  the  average  woman.  Well,  he's  a  manly 
fellow,  though  I  don't  know  that  there  is  any  reason  to 
look  so  absurdly  proud  and  happy  just  because  he  can 
stand  up  there  and  talk  to  these  people  in  that  happy  way 
of  his,  as  though  he  rather  enjoyed  an  opportunity  to  do  a 
little  dusting  of  the  world's  furniture.  Ah,  that  was  well 
put, — and  taken.  They  have  enough  life  in  them  to 
respond  to  a  little  humor,  these  dread,  accusing  skeletons 
at  the  feast  of  our  modern  civilization.  \Yhat  is  he  talk 
ing  about, — organization  ?  Not  particularly  new,  but 
eminently  the  proper  thing  to  say,  my  callow  reformer. 
He  really  looks  as  though  he  thought  he  had  discovered 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  l6/ 

something  good  and  was  much  pleased  over  it.  They 
don't  half  look  the  enthusiastic  gratitude  they  ought.  Is 
that  all  ?  So,  you  sit  down,  just  a  little  flushed,  fop  you 
are  not  a  born  orator,  my  dear  boy.  But  it  was  well  and 
modestly  done,  Paul.  I  am  pleased  with  you, — and  so  is 
someone  else,  or  I'll  never  make  another  guess  at  a  hero 
ine's  hidden  feelings. 

"  Ah,  here  is  the  orator  of  the  evening,  our  German  so 
cialist,  with  his  message  direct  from  the  empyrean.  The 
practical  trouble  will  probably  be  that  his  hearers  have 
been  so  long  exiled  from  the  empyrean  that  they  don't 
follow  the  language  readily.  But  let  us  have  it,  friend 
interpreter." 

There  was  a  little  movement  in  the  room.  Bahrdt, 
after  Rodman's  introduction,  came  to  the  front  of  the 
platform.  He  stood  silent  for  a  moment,  letting  his 
glance  sweep  over  the  rows  of  dimly  seen  faces.  Then 
in  a  low  voice,  even  with  the  perfect  quiet  of  conscious 
strength,  he  began  talking.  All  the  power  of  the  man 
came  out  when  he  fronted  a  crowd.  At  other  times  he 
might  be  bitter  and  volcanic,  but  when  he  faced  an  audi 
ence  waiting  for  the  message  he  lived  to  speak,  the  peace 
of  attainment  came  upon  him  and  a  simple  dignity  and  im- 
pressiveness  clothed  his  manner.  He  was  like  a  courier 
who  with  pain  and  passion  has  fought  his  way  through 
opposing  mobs  and  has  reached  at  last  the  audience-room 
of  the  king. 

"  You  believe  in  your  ideas  yourself,  at  any  rate,"  Miss 
Estee  thought  to  herself  as  she  watched  the  speaker. 
"  Perhaps  they  deserve  such  faith, — /  don't  know  of 
anything  but  the  abstractly  beautiful  that  is  worth  be 
lieving  in  to  that  extent.  However,  each  one  to  his 
taste,  my  fine  young  enthusiast.  I'm  going  to  get  some 
thing  from  this  lecture  whether  anyone  else  does  or  not, 
for  I'm  going  to  study  you  for  one  of  my  characters. 


1 68  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

Wouldn't  you  resent  that,  if  you  knew  ?  But  that  is  one 
of  the  ironies  of  fate.  You  probably  think  you  are  setting 
the  affairs  of  the  cosmos  to  rights,  and  even  having  some 
influence  on  the  balance  of  the  eternal  verities,  while  all 
the  time  you  are  only  striking  an  attitude  to  adorn  a  nov 
elist's  idle  page.  Well,  many  men  have  lived  and  died 
without  doing  even  so  slight  a  thing  as  that. 

"  But  what  is  this  you  are  telling  ?  The  story  of  the 
ideal  dream,  which  has  always  haunted  high  souls,  of  life 
amid  perfect  conditions, — the  possibility  of  life  at  its 
best.  Only  you  don't  call  it  a  dream.  You  believe  in  the 
possibility,  I  see, — a  Utopia  made  real,  where  glorified 
men  and  women  shall  walk  the  earth  and  there  shall  be 
no  oppression,  no  wrong-doing,  no  sorrow,  or  injustice. 

"  It  would  be  good  to  live  under  such  conditions,  you 
think,  and  so  doubtless  do  these  twisted  men  and  tired 
women  who  are  listening  to  you  as  though  you  were  a 
new  evangelist.  Well,  the  dream  is  a  fair  one.  Men 
have  held  it  before,  and  have  tried  to  plan  out  ideal  Re 
publics  and  Utopias  and  millenniums.  So  people  have 
tried  to  paint  sunset  with  chrome  yellow  and  crimson 
lake.  Something  is  lacking  !  But  it  is  a  fair  picture,  and 
you  are  making  it  a  near  and  tangible  vision  to  these  peo 
ple  who  never  heard  of  Plato  or  Sir  Thomas  More.  I 
never  suspected, — -your  mouth  is  so  hidden  by  that  beard, 
— that  you  had  so  much  of  the  poet  in  you. 

"  Now  of  course  you  hold  up  present  facts  in  contrast. 
I'm  riot  sure  it  is  altogether  fair  to  the  facts  to  pit  them 
against  so  immaterial  an  antagonist  as  your  vision,  but— 
have  it  your  own  way.  You  know  even  more  about  sta 
tistics  than  about  dreams,  don't  you  ?  You  use  them  like 
bullets, — and  you  shoot  well.  A  rain  of  bullets  !  Where 
did  you  get  all  your  facts,  I  wonder, — the  Lord  help  us 
if  they  are  facts  !  Yet  somehow  you  look  honest.  But  if 
you  don't  moderate  your  showers  of  disheartening  statis- 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  169 

tics,  you  will  soon  have  your  whole  audience  in  a  state  of 
mind  where  the  only  thing  left  will  be  to  go  home  and 
commit  suicide.  Don't  you  think  you  have  discouraged 
us  just  about  enough,  and  can't  you  let  us  off  from  the 
rest,  if  you  have  any  more  in  reserve  ? 

"  No,  you  are  bent  on  crushing  us  utterly,  I  see.  Pauper 
ism,  crime,  ignorance,  suffering,  injustice,  oppression,  dete 
rioration, — a  hopetess,  endless  snarl  of  wrong  within 
wrong  that  involves  government,  civilization,  individual 
standards,  the  whole  human  race  and  all  its  works  ! 
There,  I  could  have  told  you  in  the  beginning  ;  I  knew  the 
only  thing  worth  having  any  enthusiasm  for  is  art.  Per 
haps  that  isn't  what  you  are  trying  to  prove,  but  that  is  the 
logical  conclusion/ draw  from  your  array  of  facts.  That 
is  my  way  out  of  the  coil,  and  I  don't  see  why  I  haven't  as 
much  right  to  escape  by  way  of  art,  as  you  have  to  seek  a 
.political  and  sociological  day  of  deliverance. 

"  So  that  is  your  real  topic,  is  it  ?  The  Day  of  Deliver 
ance,  and  how  to  bring  it  about. 

"  We  are  all  enslaved  for  that  matter.  That  is  one  mis 
take  you  make,  my  dear  reformer.  You  assume  that  only 
the  laboring  classes  and  the  poor  are  in  durance.  Why, 
we  all  are,  and  we  are  waiting  for  the  dawn  of  our  Day  of 
Deliverance,  every  one  of  us,  and  working,  in  our  own 
way,  to  bring  it  nearer.  Deliverance  for  me  is  by  way  of 
my  art.  I  devote  myself  to  describing  these  human 
chains  as  gracefully  as  possible  and  so  forget  that  I  wear 
them  myself.  And  your  way  of  deliverance, — for  your 
self,  I  mean  ;  not  what  you  are  preaching, — is  to  throw 
yourself  into  this  sort  of  work.  You  think  you  are  doing 
it  to  clear  a  way  for  these  people,  but  really  and  truly  you 
are  doing  it  in  an  unconscious  attempt  to  free  yourself 
from  the  common  chains  that  all  chafe  at.  Paul  Rod 
man's  way  is  to  live  happily  and  cheeringly  and  to  dis 
pense  a  'sweet  reasonableness.'  It  isn't  as  heroic  as  your 


I7O  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

way,  but  it  will  serve.  And  there  is  Joyce  Mabie.  She 
rather  inclines  to  your  method,  but  she  is  a  woman  and 
the  chances  are  that  she  will  fall  in  love  with  Paul,  and 
then  her  intensity  will  all  be  spent  in  giving  point  to  his 
genial  optimism.  That's  the  way  of  escape  a  woman's 
instinct  chooses,  though  sometimes  it  is  anything  but 
freedom  she  finds,  poor  thing.  That's  dear  little  Dru- 
silla's  way.  She  looks  impressed  by  your  fiery  logic  just 
now,  but  don't  flatter  yourself  upon  that.  She  will  be 
swerved  about  again  by  one  calm  word  from  her  Profes 
sor, — though  of  course  she  would  but  acknowledge  it ; 
particularly  to  him.  His  way  of  self-deliverance  is  to 
stand  apart  from  the  turmoil  and  watch  with  a  sort  of 
wondering  sympathy  while  the  other  poor  wretches  are 
struggling  and  fretting.  Perhaps  he  gets  a  truer  vision 
from  his  vantage-point  than  they  ever  have.  And  there 
is  my  poor  little  Edith,  with  her  wide,  surprised  eyes, — 
Ah,  my  child,  how  startlingly  beautiful  you  are  to-night  ! 
Is  it  your  soul  waking  up  at  last  ?  Can  it  be  that  this  is 
the  food  you  need,  when  I  have  been  feeding  you  all  your 
life  with  gestheticism  ?  I  have  sometimes  thought  you 
hadn't  any  soul,  my  little  girl,  child  of  my  lonely  heart ! 
But  few  young  things  have  more  than  a  germ-soul,  I 
fancy.  It  doesn't  begin  to  grow  till  the  animal  efferves 
cence  is  over.  The  danger  is  that  you  may  be  caught 
before  that  time  and  enslaved  beyond  the  possibility  of 
any  ray  of  the  day  of  deliverance  reaching  you.  And  I 
can  do  nothing  for  you. 

"  That's  the  trouble  with  this  slavery  of  ours.  We  all 
have  to  deliver  ourselves,  and  our  wisest  planning  and 
plotting  for  others  won't  help  very  much,  whether  they 
are  individuals  or  classes,  Herr  Bahrdt !  Perhaps  the  best 
we  can  do  for  the  others, — for  the  whole, — is  to  free  our 
selves,  as  far  as  we  can.  And  that  is  what  we  all  are  try 
ing  to  do,  in  our  own  way,  consciously  or  not.  Ah,  what 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  I/I 

a  whirl  it  all  is, — and  so  few  things  sure  !  Not  even  art 
quite  stable  to-night  !  Ah,  Tom'!  Tom  !  Ah,  the  years 
of  my  life  and  the  handful  of  ashes  at  the  end  ! 

"  There,  you  have  no  idea  how  many  things  you  have 
proved  to  me  that  were  quite  outside  your  argument,  good 
reformer  mine.  Why, — what  is  he  going  to  do  now  ?  " 

The  speaker  had  paused  abruptly,  and  the  silence  woke 
everyone  to  an  effort  to  recall  his  last  sentence.  Every 
eye  turned  to  him,  but  he  did  not  resume.  He  stood  at 
the  edge  of  the  low  platform  looking  toward  the  spot  where 
our  friends  sat,  and  where  Edith's  face,  with  the  halo  of 
her  wide  lace  hat  encircling  it,  shone  out  of  the  gloom  like 
a  star.  Then  he  stepped  quietly  from  the  platform  and 
walked  down  the  central  aisle.  Rodman,  who  had  been 
sitting  back  of  him,  started  to  his  feet,  and  every  head  in 
the  audience  was  turned  to  follow  the  speaker,  but  he 
.gave  no  sign.  Only  his  step  grew  faltering,  and  a  deep 
flush  surged  slowly  up  over  his  face.  But  he  kept  his 
course  to  the  bottom  of  the  aisle,  and  there,  with  elabo 
rate  pains  he  tried  to  re-adjust  the  lamp  that  swung  in  a 
bracket  from  the  wall,  and  finally  lifted  it  down  alto 
gether.  It  was  the  lamp  over  Edith's  head.  No  one  had 
noticed  anything  wrong  with  it,  but  everyone  took  for 
granted  now  that  from  his  elevation  he  had  seen  some 
sign  of  dangerous  insecurity  and  had  terminated  his 
speech  abruptly  to  avoid  an  alarm.  He  turned  now,  with 
a  slight  nod  and  sign  to  Mason,  who  immediately  came  to 
the  front  of  the  platform  and  began  to  speak.  Bahrdt  sat 
down  in  one  of  the  back  seats,  erect  and  stern,  but  Miss 
Estee  took  note  that  presently  his  head  sank  and  the 
hand  that  had  supported  it  slid  down  to  cover  his  eyes. 

Mason's  speech  was  of  a  sort  that  is  commoner  at  such 
meetings  than  Bahrdt's.  It  was  full  of  violent  denuncia 
tions  of  vested  property,  capital,  the  monopolist  and  the 
tyrant,  and  did  not  hesitate  to  point  out  that  the  way  from 


1/2  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

the  present  slavery  which  the  former  speaker  had  so  forci 
bly  pictured  to  the  ideal  state  he  had  shown  as  a  possi 
bility,  lay  in  the  destruction  of  the  existing  fabric  of  soci 
ety  and  government.  There  was  a  good  deal  of  rant  and 
air-sawing  about  it,  and  Miss  Estee,  who  had  recovered 
her  dilettanteish  mood,  looked  at  her  watch  undisguisedly, 
and  then  at  Bahrdt's  silent  figure  across  the  aisle.  Hut 
he  sat  motionless,  with  bent  head  and  hidden  face,  till  it 
was  over  and  there  was  a  movement  of  rising.  Rodman 
came  down  hastily  to  meet  his  friends. 

"  Wait  half  a  second  and  I  will  come  with  you.  Mason 
is  going  to  organize  a  League,  or  something  of  that  sort, 
but  that  isn't  in  my  province.  I  suppose  you'll  insist  upon 
staying  for  it,  Karl  ?  " 

Bahrdt  was  standing  by,  with  his  eyes  bent  upon  the 
floor. 

"  No,  I  shall  not  stay,"  he  said  in  a  low  voice,  and  then 
he  looked  up  for  one  swift  glance. 

"  So  much  the  better.  We'll  all  walk  home  together 
then.  By  the  way,"  he  said  suddenly,  when  they  were 
outside  the  house,  "  was  anything  the  matter  with  that 
lamp  ?  I  couldn't  think  what  possessed  you  to  start  off 
in  that  way." 

"  I  suppose  I  was  nervous,"  Bahrdt  said  with  an  effort. 
"  It  was  nothing." 

But  when,  a  little  later,  he  found  himself  walking  by 
Edith's  side,  he  said  in  a  low  voice, 

"  Why  did  you  call  me  ?" 

She  stared  at  him. 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?  " 

He  did  not  answer  for  a  moment.  He  was  looking  at 
her  with  a  curious,  earnest  gaze.  Then  he  smiled. 

"  I  don't  know.     Nothing  !  " 


XVII. 

"  AFTER  the  play,  the  talk,"  said  Rodman  when  they  had 
reached  his  rooms.  He  was  in  a  jubilant  mood,  and  the 
speech  was  not  wholly  responsible  for  it.  He  flung  the 
window  wide  open  to  the  night,  and  brought  out  a  box  of 
cigars.  "  You  prefer  your  pipe  ?  I  forgot  your  objection 
to  the  cigar  as  an  emblem  of  aristocracy.  Have  a  match  ? 
Sorry  I  can't  offer  you  a  flint  and  steel.  Ah,  what  a 
heavenly  night  it  is  !  " 

He  sat  clown  on  the  wide  window  ledge,  with  his  head 
thrown  back  against  the  curtained  side,  and  blew  delicate 
films  of  smoke  out  on  the  flower-scented  air.  The  gar 
den  was  beneath.  The  long  shadows  of  the  Lombardy 
poplars  fell  athwart  it,  and  queer,  thin  patches  of  dark 
ness  marked  the  flower-beds. 

"  What  did  you  think  of  your  audience  ?  " 

"  Ah,— good.  But  not  Western  in  type.  Where  did 
you  get  your  men  ?  " 

"  I  didn't  get  them,"  Paul  laughed.  "  Don't  hold  me 
responsible.  I'm  a  fly  on  the  rim  of  the  wheel  of  this  con 
cern.  I  found  them  here." 

"So!  " 

"  Cummings  got  most  of  them  from  somewhere,  I  under 
stand,  to  replace  a  set  of  men  who  went  out  on  a  strike. 
That  was  before  my  time.  He  doesn't  seem  at  all  afraid 
of  them.  That  fact  awakens  a  heartfelt  and  respectful 
admiration  of  Cummings  in  my  soul.  Mason  is  their 
leading  spirit." 

"Who  is  Mason?" 

\ 


1^4  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"  You  heard  him  speak." 

"  No — oh,  yes  !  "  Bahrdt  rose  impatiently  and  walked 
to  the  other  window.  "  I  did  not  listen  well."  He  stood 
silent  a  few  minutes  and  then  said  abruptly, 

"  Did  you  notice  that  Miss  Estee  was  much  interested  ? 
—Miss  Edith  Estee,  I  mean.'' 

"  No,  I  didn't  notice.  I  was  surprised  to  see  her  there 
at  all." 

"  Why  ?  " 

"  Oh,  that  isn't  her  sort  of  thing." 

"  She  is  very  responsive." 

"  Emotionally  responsive,  perhaps.  I  don't  think  she 
cares  for  it  intellectually  one  little  straw." 

"  It  is  not  necessary  that  she  should,"  Bahrdt  said  im 
patiently.  "  Why  should  a  woman  think  ?  There  are 
men  enough  to  do  that." 

"  Take  care,  Karl !  You  are  a  naturalized  American 
citizen.  Don't  you  know  that  what  you  are  saying  is  high 
treason  ? " 

Bahrdt  turned  his  face  toward  his  friend  with  a  sarcas 
tic  smile. 

"  Ah,  these  country-women  of  yours  !  They  have 
given  up  the  toys  that  women  amused  themselves  with  in 
the  older  world.  They  have  outgrown  house-keeping  and 
embroidery  and  the  care  of  children  and  knowledge  of 
simples  and  herbs.  They  must  have  thoughts  like  men's, 
— only  miniature  ones,  to  suit  their  brains.  Like  boys 
who  play  at  soldiering  with  tin  swords  that  are  warranted 
not  to  cut." 

"  Do  you  say  that  of  Miss   Mabie?" 

"  She  is  a  good  girl, — Joyce  Mabie.  It  is  a  pity  that 
she  is  not  a  boy." 

"  There,  you  have  spoiled  your  own  argument.  The 
first  woman  I  mention,  you  admit  to  be  as  good  at  the 
business  of  thinking  as  a  man." 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  175 

"  I  did  not  admit  it,"  Karl  retorted.  "  I  said  it  is  a 
pity  she  is  not  a  boy.  Then  she  could  do  some  good. 
Mark  the  difference.  I  did  not  say  so  of  Miss  Estee. 
She  fulfils  her  mission  by  being  beautiful." 

"  Oh,  confound  you,  Karl,  for  a  reformer  with  worm- 
eaten  ideas  !  If  women  want  to  manage  their  own  think 
ing,  let  them.  I  shall  feel  that  we  are  getting  off  easily 
if  they  don't  take  it  into  their  heads  to  insist  on  establish 
ing  a  standard  of  dress,  morals  and  ideas  for  us.  They 
might,  you  know,  just  to  show  us  how  it  feels." 

"  And  they  will,  if  you  Americans  have  your  way." 

"  All  right.  If  they  can,  they  may.  I  say,  I'm  going 
to  take  a  turn  in  the  garden  before  I  turn  in.  This  sud 
den  blossoming  into  a  public  character  and  a  local  mag 
nate  is  going  to  turn  my  head.  I  want  to  cool  my  brain 
by  looking  at  the  stars  and  meditating  for  a  few  brief 
moments  on  the  vanity  of  human  greatness.  Don't  wait 
for  me,— though  I  won't  be  long." 

He  found  his  hat  and  went  out  into  the  cool  garden, 
where  the  heavy  flowers  stirred  drowsily  as  he  passed. 
A  rose-tree  thrust  its  drooping  flowers  into  his  face,  and 
he  snapped  the  stem  of  one  and  put  it  between  his  teeth. 

"  And  which  of  the  roses  three 
Is  the  dearest  rose  to  me  ?  " 

No  need  for  an  answer.  He  smiled  to  himself  as  he 
walked  slowly  through  the  dewy  paths,  and  always  before 
his  eyes  there  was  a  girlish  face  with  eyes  that  seemed  to 
appeal  to  him.  Sometimes  they  were  proud,  as  if  demand 
ing  how  he  dared  to  call  them  into  his  thoughts.  But 
that  was  only  a  gentle  pride  that  faded  soon  into  a  half- 
sad  loneliness,  which  made  him  tremble  with  joy  to  think 
he  could  banish  it,  as  he  knew  he  could.  And  then  he 
would  remember  how  she  had  looked  one  day  when  he 
came  upon  her  suddenly,  and  something  had  leaped  into 


1/6  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

her  face  for  a  moment, — Joyce  Mabie,  Joyce  Mabie,  Joyce 
Mabie  !  He  said  the  words  softly  for  the  pleasure  of 
hearing  them  with  the  outward  ear,  and  they  ran  into  a 
tune  that  sang  itself  through  all  his  thoughts.  A  blind 
musician  once  wrote  a  fantasy  upon  a  name, — the  name  of 
a  lady.  The  music  goes  weaving  and  wreathing  in  delicate 
sprays  of  melody,  but  under  it  all,  like  the  murmur  of  a 
brook  that  the  flowers  bend  over,  runs  the  rippling  accent 
of  the  name.  So  in  his  heart  it  sang,  and  his  thoughts 
and  fancies  were  woven  around  it,  and  when  he  went  in  at 
last  he  did  not  know  that  the  peaceful  chapter  of  his  love- 
story  had  been  ended  in  the  garden. 


XVIII. 

"  WHY  weren't  you  out  at  my  debut  last  night, 
Stephen?"  Rodman  asked  maliciously,  dropping  in  at 
Hale's  office  the  next  morning. 

Hale  turned  his  office  chair  about,  but  still  kept  his 
hands  full  of  papers,  as  though  the  physical  contact  with 
the  interests  of  business  were  necessary  to  him. 

"  I  would  rather  have  heard  you  speak  on  a  less  fanati 
cal  subject." 

"  I  fanatical  ?"  Paul  exclaimed  with  horror. 

"  I  didn't  say  so.  You  happen  to  have  the  instincts 
and  traditions  of  a  gentleman.  But  you  are  meddling 
with  a  fanatical  subject." 

"  All  great  questions  seem  to  have  the  misfortune  to  be 
born  fanatical,  don't  they  ?  They  don't  grow  to  be  really 
respectable  until  they  are  bald  and  toothless,  and  have 
become  institutions  instead  of  problems." 

Hale  lifted  his  eyebrows  for  a  moment  without  lifting 
his  head. 

"  You  are  catching  the  trick  of  their  speech  very  credi 
tably.  Nevertheless,  the  world  is  directed,  guided  and 
governed  by  institutions,  not  by  problems.  And  it  will 
be,  in  spite  of  the  froth  and  foam  of  the  agitators." 

"  And  it  has  been  directed,  guided  and  governed  so 
well  and  so  wisely  that  it  would  be  a  pity  to  make  any 
change." 

"The  change  you  are  proposing  is  the  wrong  sort." 

"  I'm  not  proposing  anything  revolutionary, — only  a 
little  more  humanity  to  man." 


1/8  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"You  can't  look  upon  employes  as  human  beings." 

Paul  stared.     "  Oh,  can't  you  ?  " 

"  Not  your  own  employes.  As  a  humanitarian,  as  a 
philanthropist,  you  may.  But  as  an  employer,  you  must 
come  practically  to  regard  them  as  instruments.  Your 
friends  would  like  to  get  hold  of  this  sentiment,  of  course. 
It  would  be  a  fine  text  for  them.  But  I  have  no  interest 
in  the  question.  I  am  not  in  the  muddle,  and  don't  in 
tend  to  have  anything  to  do  with  it." 

Paul  laughed,  but  at  the  same  time  he  wondered  whim 
sically  whether  it  hadn't  ever  happened  that  a  client, — a 
little  woman,  say,  who  hadn't  more  vitality  than  just 
enough  to  keep  her  going  under  favorable  conditions, — 
had  been  carried  out  of  that  client's  chair  stiff  and  frozen. 

"  But  what  is  your  idea  ?     I  won't  give  you  any." 

"  You  couldn't,  because  those  friends  of  yours  wouldn't 
understand.  It  is  safe  telling  state  secrets  to  children. 
But  it  is  very  clear,  if  you  keep  reason  above  emotion, 
that  the  foundation  of  all  institutions  is  in  law,  and  the 
fundamental  law  of  man  and  of  nature  is  the  law  of 
strength.  At  first  a  man's  right  was  just  what  he  could 
successfully  defend.  Then,  because  it  was  a  tedious  proc 
ess  to  put  it  to  the  proof  each  time,  they  adopted  a  legal 
tender  for  the  actual  strength  in  the  treasury  and  called  it 
law.  And  law  has  always  governed  because  it  is  based  on 
strength.  And  it  always  will  do  so." 

"  But  what  if  the  strength  shifts  to  the  other  side  and 
the  laws  remain  unchanged  ?  There  may  be  a  revolution 
brewing." 

''Talk  like  that  is  idle  and  mischevious.  Idle,  because 
it  disregards  the  very  fact  on  which  my  argument  is  based, 
that  law  naturally  gravitates  to  the  side  of  strength  and 
that  it  can't  be  forced  ;  and  mischievous  because  it  tends 
to  give  the  malcontents  false  and  distorted  ideas  of  their 
own  power.  Besides,  it  is  nonsense  to  talk  about  a 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  179 

revolution  in  a  country  where  the  people  make  the 
laws." 

"  Do  they  ?  Have  you  never  heard  of  a  wealthy  cor 
poration  buying  up  a  state  legislature  ?" 

"  And  have  you  never  heard  of  a  granger  legislature 
amusing  itself  by  making  little  laws  for  the  express  pur 
pose  of  driving  the  stockholders  of  such  corporations  into 
bankruptcy  ?  They  will  always  fight,  of  course,  and  of 
course  the  under  dog  will  always  howl.  But  what  would 
they  do  if  they  didn't  fight  ?  It  is  their  way  of  getting  an 
education." 

Paul  laughed.  "  I  would  like  to  have  Karl  Bahrdt  hear 
you  say  that  !  " 

"I  would  not  say  it  to  him,"  Hale  answered  with  care 
less  disdain.  "  He  is  one  of  your  fanatics,  and  I  dislike 
the  type.  I  see  by  the  paper  he  discoursed  upon  the  Day 
.of  Deliverance  for  the  masses.  It  would  be  impossible 
for  him -to  see  or  admit  that  there  is  no  deliverance  possi 
ble  for  the  masses,  and  that  they  constitute  the  masses 
simply  because  they  are  fit  for  nothing  else." 

"  Not  very  much  mercy  in  your  scheme  of  evolution." 

"  No,  there  isn't,  because  man  is  a  part  of  nature,  and 
there  isn't  much  mercy  in  nature.  How  many  million 
seeds  are  blown  away  on  the  wind  for  one  that  finds  a 
crevice  in  which  to  grow  ?  How  many  surplus  men  are 
provided  by  nature  as  a  foundation,  in  order  that  some 
may  carry  the  generation's  work  to  a  higher  point  ?  The 
men  protest,  that  is  the  difference.  The  seeds  don't. 
They  are  swept  up  into  the  dust  heap  and  carted  off  to 
the  crematory." 

"  Is  this  indigestion,  my  friend,  or  have  you  been  read 
ing  Schopenhauer  ? " 

"  It  is  logic.  I  am  looking  facts  in  the  face,  that  is  all, 
instead  of  shirking  them,  like  your  contented  optimists,  or 
dressing  them  up  into  fantastic  dolls,  like  your  agitators." 


I  So  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"  I'd  like  to  know  what  good  purpose  you  think  men 
serve  as  a  whole  in  the  scheme  of  nature  as  you  have  it." 

"  That  is  out  of  my  province.  I'm  not  a  metaphysician 
or  a  theologian.  I  am  a  lawyer,  and  I  should  say,  answer 
ing  your  fiery  friend's  questions  of  last  night,  that  the  day 
of  deliverance  for  humanity  in  general  is  to  come  by  the 
furtherance  of  the  best  part  of  it  and  the  extinction  of  the 
unfit,  and  for  the  particular  individuals  on  whom  the  rule 
bears  heavily, — why,  it  will  come  with  death,  and  that 
isn't  long  to  wait  for." 

"  Good-morning,  Stephen.  If  you  think  I  am  equal  to 
more  than  half  an  hour  of  this  at  a  time,  you  give  me  credit 
for  more  nerve  than  I  possess.  If  you  decline  to  talk  like 
this  to  Bahrdt,  I  shall  bring  him  with  me  next  time  as 
a  protection." 

"  Don't.  I  have  an  instinctive  dislike  for  the  man. 
Though,  by  the  way,  I  was  going  to  speak  of  him.  Wasn't 
it  he  who  introduced  you  to  the  artist  who  painted  that 
'  Spartan  Boy  '  you  bought  ?  " 

Paul  had  reached  the  door,  but  he  turned  with  his  hand 
upon  the  knob. 

"Yes." 

"  What  was  his  name  ?  " 

Paul  hesitated  a  moment  before  he  said,  "Tom  Garner." 

"  I  thought  so.  You  don't  happen  to  know  his  present 
whereabouts,  do  you  ?  " 

"No." 

"  Do  you  suppose  your  friend  knows  ?  " 

"  I  have  no  idea.     Why,  if  I  may  ask  ?  " 

"  Simply  because  Tom  Garner  is  wanted  to  answer  a 
criminal  charge,  and  I  am  professionally  interested  in 
getting  some  authentic  information  as  to  his  present 
whereabouts." 

Paul  came  back.  "  A  criminal  charge  ?  "  he  repeated 
deliberately. 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  l8l 

"  Yes,  a  robbery.  It  was  so  artistic  a  piece  of  work 
that  one  can't  help  having  a  sort  of  admiration  for  the 
fellow,  though  unfortunately  for  him  the  criminal  code 
doesn't  take  that  into  consideration.  He  conveyed  away 
a  valuable  painting  from  a  private  gallery,  and  left  in  its 
place  a  copy  so  well  executed  that  the  substitution  was 
only  discovered  by  accident.  The  matter  was  kept  out  of 
the  papers  as  much  as  possible,  because  the  authorities 
didn't  want  their  bird  to  take  alarm,  but  he  quietly  disap 
peared,  and  the  detectives  have  not  succeeded  yet  in  trac 
ing  him.  I  disapprove  of  the  man's  contempt  for  the  law 
of  the  land,  but  I  admire  his  cleverness." 

Paul  was  lightly  leaning  against  the  edge  of  the  desk. 
A  curious  look  had  come  into  his  blue  eyes,  but  he  only 
nodded. 

"  I  heard  about  it  while  in  Chicago,  and  my  colleagues 
.there  are  engaged  on  the  case.  He  must  have  gone  off 
when  the  first  breath  of  suspicion  was  aroused,  and  he 
took  his  daughter  with  him.  They  were  traced  to  Mex 
ico,  and  it  is  probable  that  they  have  gone  to  South 
America.  It  was  all  very  ingeniously  managed.  Whether 
this  Karl  Bahrdt  knows  their  address  or  not,  he  is 
their  friend,  and  wouldn't  give  it  away  if  he  did.  I  only 
thought  it  would  be  well  to  mention  it  to  you,  so  that  if 
anything  should  be  dropped,  you  might  catch  it." 

"  I  haven't  really  looked  upon  myself  as  a  budding  de 
tective,"  said  Paul  sweetly,  "but  there  is  no  telling  what 
heights  my  ambition  might  reach  if  properly  spurred. 
I'm  not  sure  that  I  would  be  equal,  at  first,  to  opening 
letters,  but  I  suppose  I  might  be  trusted  with  something 
more  elementary  to  begin  with, — like  worming  myself  into 
Karl's  confidence,  and  then  giving  you  the  results.  I 
wouldn't  do  it  for  nothing,  mind  you.  I  would  want  to 
be  paid  for  my  work,  just  to  made  up  an  artistic  complete 
ness  of  baseness." 


1 82  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

Hale's  eyebrows  contracted.  "  I'm  not  asking  you  to 
do  anything  of  that  sort,"  he  said  shortly.  "  Though  I 
didn't  suppose  your  sympathies  would  be  on  the  opposite 
side.  But  since  you  take  it  that  way,  I  will  only  ask  you 
not  to  mention  to  your  friend  that  I  am  interested  in  hunt 
ing  down  one  of  his  cronies  who  has  been  so  unfortunate  as 
to  get  into  a  misunderstanding  with  this  law  which  he  so 
eloquently  denounces.  It  might  make  it  harder  for  me 
to  get  my  information." 

"  I  shall  probably  have  no  occasion  to  mention  the  sub 
ject,"  Paul  said,  and  then  he  went  out. 

He  walked  up  the  street  with  an  undisturbed  air,  but 
he  had  forgotten  whither  he  was  bound.  He  walked  on, 
past  the  last  house  of  the  village,  up  to  where  the  hill 
turned  into  a  tableland  covered  with  a  scrubby  wood. 
He  walked  on  with  no  conscious  purpose,  striving  to  re 
cover  himself  in  this  strange  tumult  that  was  sweeping 
over  him. 


XIX. 

SHE  was  walking  on  a  mine,  with  her  brave  and  innocent 
feet, — his  lady  of  dreams  who  saw  the  stars  and  knew  so 
little  of  the  earth.  How  could  he  save  her  ?  How  could 
he, — unless  she  loved  him  ? 

As  for  the  story,  after  the  first  shock  of  the  idea,  it 
was  not  difficult  to  understand.  He  had  never  seen  Tom 
Garner,  but  he  had  guessed  his  character  from  Bahrdt's 
description,  and  Joyce  had  told  him  more,  by  what  she 
did  not  say  as  well  as  by  what  she  did.  It  was  not  hard 
-to  understand  that  such  a  man,  posing  as  an  outlaw,  gaily 
defiant  of  society  and  associating  with  men,  like  Bahrdt, 
who  were  not  in  the  habit  of  taking  the  righteousness  of 
established  laws  for  granted,  volatile  of  fancy  and  per 
haps  desperate  with  some  disappointment,  might  deem 
himself  justified,  even,  in  doing  what  he  had  done, — if  he 
had  done  it.  Hale  might  not  have  any  proof. 

That  Joyce  did  not  even  know  of  the  suspicion  which 
rested  upon  him  was  certain.  How  her  proud  and  sensi 
tive  soul  would  bear  it  he  dreaded  to  think.  She  would 
want  to  shut  herself  away  from  everyone, — even  from 
him,  unless  he  had  won  the  confession  of  her  love  from 
her  first.  Then,  he  felt  exultingly,  the  clouds  might 
break  upon  their  heads. 

And  it  could  not  be  long  at  the  longest  before  she 
knew.  It  was  strange  that  it  had  not  all  come  out  before 
this.  Some  chance  word  might  put  the  clew  into  Hale's 
hands  any  day,  or  Bahrdt,  who  surely  must  know  the  re 
port  at  least,  would  warn  her  of  it.  Yet  if  he  knew,  why 


1 84  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

hadn't  he  mentioned  it  before  now  ?  Karl  was  unaccount 
able.  If  worst  came  to  worst,  he  must  put  her  on  her 
guard  before  the  fatal  news  reached  her  from  some  less 
friendly  source.  But  if  they  would  only  both  hold  off  a 
little  while,  till  he  had  time- 
He  had  no  doubt  in  his  heart  but  that  she  would  come 
to  love  him  if  only  he  had  time  to  win  her.  She  hadn't 
waked  up  yet  to  the  possibility,  perhaps,  because  she  had 
lived  with  different  thoughts,  but  she  would  love  him  in 
time.  It  was  destined,  he  asserted  passionately.  His  own 
love  was  a  warrant  for  it.  It  was  impossible  that  he 
should  love  her  as  he  did  and  that  she  should  not  respond. 
It  was  impossible  to  believe  that  this  love  which  was  so 
much  more  to  him  than  anything  that  his  life  had  ever 
held  before  could  be  nothing  but  a  delusion.  He 
clenched  his  hands  to  think  how  impossible  it  was  to 
prove  his  faith, — yet  he  knew  it  !  He  knew  it  with  every 
fibre  of  his  being.  She  loved  him  now,  though  she  might 
not  know  it  !  She  would  come  to  know  it,  if  he  might 
have  time  to  waken  her  gently.  She  would  confess  it, — 
if  this  dreadful  thing  did  not  happen  first  and  drive  her 
away  from  him  and  from  all  help,  to  fight  it  out  by  her 
self  in  loneliness  of  soul.  He  knew  exactly  what  her  im 
pulse  would  be,  and  he  trembled  to  recognize  his  own 
powerlessness  unless  he  had  first  won  some  right  to  stand 
between  her  and  her  fate. 

How  was  it  that  this  stranger  had  come  to  be  so  im 
portant  a  factor  in  his  life,  which  had  seemed  complete 
enough  before  ?  She  suited  him,  that  was  all  there  was  to 
be  said  about  it.  There  might  be  surface  surprises  and 
re-adjustments, — to  keep  the  harmony  from  monotony  ! — 
but  they  found  in  each  other  the  certainty  of  responsive 
mood  which  makes  the  beauty  of  old  companionships. 
And  all  her  little  ways  fascinated  him, — her  little  habit  of 
frowning  in  her  earnest  speech,  which  always  tempted 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  185 

him  to  smile  and  spoil  the  effect,  the  sudden  light  that 
could  chase  the  wistful  shadows  out  of  her  eyes,  the 
little  quick  revelations  of  an  ardent  temper  which  most 
people  never  suspected, — he  knew  them  all.  Truly,  he 
knew  them  by  heart !  They  had  never  had  any  need  to 
learn  each  other's  ways.  It  was  hard  to  analyze,  but  he 
always  seemed  to  reach  the  truest  fulfilment  of  himself 
when  with  her. 

The  old  ambitions  which  had  possessed  him  from  boy 
hood,  the  later  ideas  which  he  had  half  adopted,  as  a 
matter  of  conscience  and  intellect,  all  fell  away  before 
this.  If  life  had  proved  sunny  and  smooth,  it  would  have 
been  his  crowning  joy  to  ensure  her  happiness.  If  life 
was  to  be  rough,  to  love  her,  to  shield  her,  to  be  to  her  all 
that  his  heart  might  make  possible,  would  be  his  suprem- 
est  commission.  The  best  of  him  was  bound  up  in  that. 

"  I  am  named  and  known  by  that  hour's  feat, 

There  took  my  station  and  degree. 
So  grew  my  own  small  life  complete 

As  nature  obtained  the  best  of  me, — 
One  born  to  love  you,  sweet  1 " 


XX. 

WHEN  Paul  left  the  wooded  hill,  where  he  had  thought 
his  way  clear,  and  came  down  to  the  village  again,  the 
afternoon  was  sinking  toward  evening.  He  took  grateful 
note  of  the  slanting,  reddish  light  and  the  cooler  air, 
with  the  appreciation  that  a  quickened  inner  sense  gives 
to  the  outer  perception.  He  pushed  back  his  hat  and 
slackened  his  pace,  yet  all  the  outer  peace  could  not  quiet 
certain  tremors  at  his  heart. 

He  saw  Hale  down  the  street,  and  crossed  over  to  avoid 
him.  He  must  see  Joyce  first  of  all,  and  then — events 
must  decide  what  next.  But  as  he  turned  up  High  street 
he  felt  somewhat  as  a  soldier  does  when  marching  into 
unknown  territory.  Mr.  Jefferson's  tower  came  out  sud 
denly  between  the  trees,  and  he  wondered  whimsically 
whether  the  white-haired  old  man  could  tell  him  if  the  as 
pect  of  the  stars  was  favorable  for  wooing.  It  is  rather 
nervous  work  at  best,  but  to  woo  against  time,  as  it  were, 
and  with  a  good  deal  of  uncertainty  as  to  the  field,  was 
enough  to  stir  even  Paul  Rodman's  serene  temperament. 

When  he  pushed  open  the  swinging  gate  that  put  slight 
barrier  between  Prof.  Hamill's  orchard  of  the  blest  and 
the  outside  world,  he  found  Mrs.  Hamill  in  the  accustomed 
place,  but  alone,  with  a  basket  of  mending  beside  her  and 
a  very  forlorn  expression  of  countenance. 

"Oh,  I  am  just  as  glad  as  I  can  be  to  have  you  come," 
she  exclaimed,  upsetting  her  basket  in  the  ardor  (of  her 
welcome.  "  I  am  all  alone,  and  I  don't  like  to  be 
alone." 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  l8/ 

"  How  does  so  unjustifiable  a  condition  of  affairs  come 
about  ? " 

"  Oh,  Rob  has  gone  off  somewhere  with  a  book  in  his 
pocket/  and  that  is  the  end  of  him,  humanly  speaking. 
Joyce,  she  has  shut  herself  up  in  her  room  and  won't  see 
anybody.  Not  anybody  at  all." 

Terror  held  Paul's  voice  in  his  throat.  "  I  trust — that 
nothing  serious — 

"  I  think  it  is  pretty  serious  to  be  left  alone  all  after 
noon  with  nothing  but  my  mending.  I  like  Joyce,  Mr. 
Rodman.  I  just  like  Joyce,  but  I  do  think  it  was  awful  of 
her  to  leave  me  alone  on  mending  day,  because  mending 
at  the  very  best  is  nine  parts  spiritual  discipline  to  one 
part  patches,  for  me." 

"  But  why  does  she  shut  herself  up?"  he  demanded. 
"  Has  there  been — any  bad  news  ? " 

•  "  Oh,  dear  no.  She  is  enjoying  herself,  Joyce  is.  She 
thinks  she  is  working  for  humanity,  and  she  doesn't  con 
sider  that  I  am  a  part  of  humanity  myself,  small  as  I  am. 
Mr.  Bahrdt  has  been  here  and  he  has  given  her  some  writ 
ing  to  do  that  is  going  to  take  three  solid  months.  She 
has  been  at  it  six  hours  now.  Whether  she  will  come 
down  to  tea  or  not,  I  don't  undertake  to  say." 

"  You  might  represent  to  her  the  alarming  increase 
there  would  be  in  the  statistics  of  starvation  if  she  didn't." 

"  So  I  could.  And  I  might  talk  to  Mr.  Bahrdt.  The 
young  man  means  well,  but  he  is  a  young  man,  and  conse 
quently  he  doesn't  know  anything  about  nerves.  Not 
anything  at  all.  And  I  don't  like  to  have  him  setting 
Joyce  to  work  at  his  socialistic  schemes." 

"  Oh,  well,  that  is  only  what  she  has  always  been  doing," 
he  said  with  a  breath  of  relief.  He  would  have  liked  to 
add  that  it  was  no  worse  a  fad  than  collecting  autographs 
or  old  lace,  but  a  sense  of  loyalty  restrained  him.  Even 
her  fads  were  in  a  manner  sacred. 


1 88  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"  Not  by  any  manner  of  means,"  she  retorted.  "  You 
don't  appreciate  the  solemnity  of  the  occasion  at  all. 
Everything  that  has  gone  before  has  only  been  prepara 
tion, — that  is  what  she  said  herself.  This  is  the  final  step, 
— a  consecration, — something  like  taking  the  veil,  or  at 
least  a  vow.  She  talks  about  going  back  to  Chicago  in 
order  to  be  freer  to  work.  Don't  you  think  we  would  be 
justified  in  putting  poison  into  Mr.  Bahrdt's  coffee, — 
some  nice,  sweet  poison  that  wouldn't  hurt  him  at  all  but 
would  just  dispose  of  him  ?" 

"  It  may  come  to  that,  but  we  might  try  moral  suasion 
first.  The  first  thing  to  do  is  to  find  out  whether  she  has 
really  determined  to  resist  all  worldly  temptations.  Sup 
pose  I  arrange  a  picnic  on  Berry  Hill  to-morrow." 

"  To  cook  coffee  over  an  Indian  Mound.     Splendid  !  " 

"  Do  you  think  she  will  come  ? " 

"  Oh,  I  don't  know,  Mr.  Rodman.  She's  Joyce,  you  see. 
That's  the  trouble.  I  don't  know  at  all." 

"Well,  we'll  try.  It  will  be  a  test,  and  then  we'll 
know  whether  more  stringent  measures  are  neces 
sary." 

The  conspiracy  was  interrupted  by  the  appearance  of 
Joyce,  who  came  down  with  some  newspapers  and 
journals  in  her  hands  which  she  rolled  up  and  dropped  on 
the  grass  when  she  discovered  that  it  was  Rodman  who 
rose  to  meet  her. 

"Ah!"  he  said,  with  that  indefinable  accent  which  is 
more  complimentary  than  words,  and  makes  the  setting  of 
a  chair  a  personal  homage. 

She  had  been  working  till  her  cheeks  were  flushed  and 
her  eyes  brilliant  and  every  movement  had  the  grace  of 
languor.  She  leaned  back  and  looked  at  Dru,  smiling, 
silent.  Her  unusual  beauty  made  Paul's  heart  leap, 
though  the  next  moment  he  was  ready  to  be  jealous  of 
the  element  in  her  life  that  could  bring  that  look  into  her 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  189 

face.  He  was  very  little  of  an  egotist  ordinarily,  but 
being  a  man  and  in  love,  he  could  not,  in  the  nature  of 
things,  be  wholly  content  while  there  existed  any  power 
on  earth  to  move  her,  save  himself. 

"We  have  been  working  up  a  beautiful  scheme,  Mrs. 
Hamill  and  I,"  he  said,  trying  to  keep  his  voice  and  eyes 
under  control.  "  We  are  going  to  invite  you  to  take 
breakfast  at  the  Indian  Mounds  to-morrow  morning. 
(Does  she  begin  to  look  interested?"  he  asked  Mrs. 
Hamill  in  a  stage-aside,  and  then  he  went  on  boldly  and 
rapidly).  "  The  Professor  will  be  required  to  appear  in 
the  capacity  of  cook.  He  doesn't  know  it  yet,  but  that 
doesn't  matter.  Cousin  Eleanor  and  Edith,  of  course, 
and  Stephen  Hale  if  he  will  promise  to  be  good,  and 
Karl,  just  to  show  him  what  a  good  time  the  natural  man 
can  have.  Also  chowder." 

"It  sounds  delightful,"  Joyce  hesitated,  and  Paul's  ear 
caught  the  premonitory  note  of  refusal.  "  But  I  think 
you  will  have  to  count  me  out,"  she  added,  flushing. 

"  Even  if  we  let  you  bring  the  last  book  on  labor 
statistics  in  the  lunch-basket,  and  refresh  yourself  by 
dipping  into  it  at  reasonably  infrequent  intervals  ?  " 

"  It  is  hard  to  resist  that,"  she  conceded,  laughing, 
"  but,  honestly,  I'm  afraid  I  won't  have  time." 

"  What  is  time  for  ?  "  he  asked  calmly. 

"  To  work  with,"  she  answered  so  promptly  and 
happily,  that  he  regretted  the  indiscreet  form  of  his 
question. 

"  Oh,  how  does  the  good  work  go  on  ?"  he  asked  mali 
ciously,  with  the  hereditary  impulse  of  the  race  to  slay  a 
rival.  "  Mrs.  Hamill  tells  me  that  you  have  taken  a  con 
tract  to  sprinkle  salt  on  the  tail  of  the  millennium  within 
three  months." 

"  Has  she  told  you  all  about  it  ?  "  asked  Joyce  with  a 
bright  smile.  She  was  excited  and  happy,  and  perhaps  a 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY, 

little  relieved  that  he  already  knew.  "  That  is  why  I  must 
stay  at  home.  Mr.  Bahrdt  has  been  gathering  material 
for  a  history  of  the  labor  organizations  in  this  country, 
and  he  wants  very  much  to  have  it  published  this  fall. 
He  thinks  I  can  do  the  writing  up  from  his  skeleton  plan 
and  the  materials  he  will  give  me,  and  I  am  going  to 
work  hard.  I  shall  be  so  pleased  if  I  can  do  it." 

"  A  book  ?  A  whole  book  ?  And,  worse  than  all,  a 
book  with  a  purpose  ? " 

"  All  of  that,"  she  admitted  gaily,  though  her  eyes 
were  downcast.  "  Really,  I  think  it  better  to  call  it  a 
purpose  with  a  book,  the  purpose  is  so  much  the  more 
important." 

"  But  how  much  of  your  time  is  this  precious  enter 
prise  going  to  occupy  ?  That  is  the  point  that  your 
friends  are  interested  in." 

"  Oh,  I  shall  have  to  give  up  everything  else.  I  shall 
have  to  give  myself  up  to  it  wholly,"  she  said  earnestly. 
"If  I  can  do  it  at  all  by  the  time  he  wants  it,  I  must  not 
divide  my  time  with  anything  else.  That  is  why  I 
thought  it  would  be  best  for  me  to  go  back  to  Chicago  to 
work, — but  Dru  wants  me  to  stay." 

Dru  looked  at  Rodman  with  a  tragic  appeal. 

"Do  you  think  you  could  make  this  girl  understand, 
Mr.  Rodman,  that  if  she  goes  away  to  work  where  there 
is  nobody  around  with  a  grain  of  sense  to  make  her  stop 
occasionally,  I  shall  be  mortally  offended  ?  I  Tiave  stated 
it  as  forcibly  as  my  limited  gift  of  language  will  permit, 
but  maybe  if  you  put  it  in  scientific  form  it  will  have 
more  weight  with  her." 

"  Very  well.  In  scientific  form,  Miss  Mabie,  do  you 
intend  to  write  every  day  until  your  hands  tremble  like 
that  ?  " 

She  flushed  and  clasped  one  hand  over  the  other. 

"  What  if  I  do  ?     It  is  necessary." 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  19! 

"  The  necessity  is  not  so  urgent  that  you  should  wholly 
sacrifice  yourself." 

"It  is  not  a  sacrifice.  I  want  to  do  it.  It  is  my  life- 
work,  and  if  I  can  spend  myself  in  strengthening  the 
sense  of  justice  and  responsibility  in  men,  I  think  it  will 
be  quite  as  well  worth  while  as  if  I  gave  up  my  whole  in 
terest  to  discovering  how  many  joints  there  are  in  the 
legs  of  some  invisible  animal  in  our  drinking  water." 

"  Is  that  a  challenge  ?  "  he  cried  with  much  glee.  "  To 
strengthen  the  sense  of  justice  and  responsibility,  quotha. 
Let  me  see,"  and  he  picked  up  her  papers  with  a  mis 
chievous  air.  "  Will  you  let  the  decision  rest  on  six  ex 
tracts  ?  Just  talk  to  Mrs.  Hamill  a  moment, — Here,  will 
you  take  this  for  one  ?  '  The  man  who  sells  his  labor  is 
an  economic  slave  and  the  man  who  sells  the  product  of 
the  slave  is  a  master.  A  great  conspiracy  against  labor 
ers  has  been  organized  and  legalized.  The  railroad  and 
other  mpnopolies  are  but  part  of  this  conspiracy,  which  is 
the  present  industrial  system,  whose  trend  and  object  are 
the  overthrow  of  free  government  and  the  establishment 
of  despotism.  By  this  conspiracy  laborers  are  forced 
into  the  market  controlled  by  the  employing  class, 
chained  to  the  block  of  lost  opportunity  and  knocked 
down  at  such  prices  as  the  lowest  level  of  civilization  in 
the  community  will  permit.  The  dregs  of  civilization  are 
drawn  to  protect  the  rights  of  capitalists  at  strikes.' — 
'  The  police  exist  to  protect  the  workingman  if  he  works 
for  starvation  wages  and  is  an  obedient  serf  ;  to  club  him 
down  when  he  rebels  against  the  capitalistic  herd  of  rob 
bers.  Force  only  gives  away  to  force.  Who  wants  to 
attack  capitalism  in  earnest  must  overthrow  the  body 
guard  of  it,  the  well-drilled  and  well-armed  men  of  order, 
and  kill  them  if  he  does  not  want  to  be  murdered  himself.' 
Justice  or  responsibility,  which  ?  No,  just  wait  a  minute. 
I  want  to  find  another.  Here  ;  '  We  hold  that  the  locked- 


IQ2  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

out  or  discharged  employee  has  a  property  right  in  the 
plant  as  well  as  in  the  surplus  that  was  created  by  his 
labor.  Let  us  organize  and  renew  our  efforts  and  pro 
ceed  to  attack  the  citadel  of  capitalism.  Let  us  have 
strikes  and  strikes  and  strikes  until  we  win.'  There  will 
be  some  responsibility  then,  at  least  !  Oh,  here  is  some 
thing  beautiful.  I'll  admit  anything  you  want  to  claim  for 
this  :  '  I  am  weary  of  the  cant  which  deifies  the  shadowy 
vaporings  of  ill-balanced  minds  and  labels  as  reactionary 
that  concrete  expression  of  the  noblest  aspirations  of 
mankind  called  trades-unionism.  The  Bluchers  of  timid 
ity  and  irresolution  may  cavil  that  the  old  guard  fails  to 
pierce  always  the  lines  of  the  grenadiers  of  capital,  but  it 
is  not  the  Bluchers  who  deserve  the  laurel  wreaths  of 
honor  or  the  sounding  peans.'  " 

"  Well,  rhetoric  is  harmless,"  she  protested. 

"Is  harmlessness  your  greatest  claim  for  it?  Then 
what  do  you  say  to  this  ;  '  All  governments  exist  by  the 
abridgement  of  human  liberty,  and  the  more  government 
the  less  liberty.  He  alone  is  free  who  submits  to  no 
government.  All  governments  are  domineering  powers, 
and  any  domineering  power  is  an  enemy  to  all  mankind 
and  ought  to  be  treated  as  such.'  " 

"  That  isn't  a  fair  example,"  she  said  uneasily. 

He  picked  up  another. 

"  This,  then  ?  '  Money  is  carried  away  little  by  little 
until  the  piles  become  larger  and  larger  until  it  is  like  a 
river  running  into  Wall  street,  then  it  ceases  to  be  like 
the  water  of  the  earth  because  it  is  not  taken  up  and 
carried  back  over  the  country  unless  there  is  a  shortage 
and  a  contract  to  return  the  same  and  an  additional  sum 
as  interest.'  How  could  they  return  a  shortage  ?  The 
water  is  heaped  up  into  little  piles  and  pretty  soon  there 
are  so  many  little  piles  that  they  make  a  river  and  then 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  193 

"  And  does  it  mean  no  more  to  you  than  a  stumbling 
grammarian  and  a  poor  maker  of  phrases  ?"  cried  Joyce 
passionately.  "  Don't  you  feel  something  under  the  wild- 
ness  and  the  unreason  of  the  most  fanatical  of  them  all 
that  you  have  to  bow  your  head  to, — that  you  do  bow 
your  head  to  when  Lowell  voices  it,  calling  his  country, 
'  She  who  lifts  up  the  manhood  of  the  poor.'  That  is 
what  they  are  all  trying  to  say,  these  writers  who  don't 
stop  to  prune  and  trim  their  sentences  and  don't  know 
enough  to  weave  smooth  phrases,  but  do  know  something 
infinitely  better." 

He  felt  himself  thrilled  by  her  fervor,  yet  he  called  her 
a  pretty  fanatic  to  himself.  He  couldn't  approve  of  even 
a  pretty  fanaticism  when  it  shut  him  out,  and  he  distinctly 
disapproved  of  any  scheme  of  Karl's  which  was  going  to 
occupy  her  time  and  interest  to  the  exclusion  of  other 
affairs.  Mrs.  Hamill  saved  him  the  necessity  of  replying. 

"  It  isn't  because  they  want  to  reform  things,"  she 
broke  in,  snapping  a  thread  decisively.  "  It  is  just  be 
cause  they  like  a  fight.  They  just  like  it.  It  is  their 
nature  to,  and  they  wouldn't  be  happy  a  bit,  or  think  it  a 
bit  nice  world,  if  there  wasn't  something  in  it  to  fight. 
You  needn't  tell  me.  I  know  'em.  It  is  just  human  nature, 
the  same  kind  that  makes  the  other  people  fight  for 
money  or  honors.  They  take  it  out  that  way,  that's  all." 

"  I  don't  think  that  is  it  altogether,"  Joyce  said  stead 
ily.  "  I  think  perhaps  they  might  like  to  choose  the  easy 
way  of  letting  things  go,  but — after  you  have  once  seen 
something  that  is  true,  you  cannot  ignore  it  and  go  on 
your  way  as  before." 

"  O  Joyce,  can't  you  be  nice  and  bigoted  for  once, 
just  to  make  yourself  agreeable  ?  It  isn't  as  though  I 
were  asking  you  to  do  something  hard  ;  to  be  narrow- 
minded  is  really  the  easiest  thing  in  the  world.  Can't 
you  just  pretend  to  be,  at  least?" 


194  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

But  Joyce  smiled  rather  faintly.  She  felt  the  dis 
approval  in  the  atmosphere,  and  contrasted  it  with  the 
burning  eloquence  with  which  Karl  had  discussed  the 
plan  of  his  new  book,  the  need  there  was  of  it  to  right 
popular  misconceptions  and  the  important  bearing  it 
would  have  at  this  most  important  epoch  in  their  work. 
Never  had  he  been  so  ardent,  so  sternly  self-devoted  to 
the  cause  of  furthering  the  welfare  of  humanity.  In  the 
fire  of  his  enthusiasm,  all  worldly  ambitions  and  objects 
melted  like  dross  in  the  crucible.  Joyce  had  listened  with 
a  high-strung  responsiveness  that  made  his  ardor  seem 
the  only  justifiable  ambition  in  the  world.  She  did  not 
know — he  did  not  know  himself — how  much  of  it  was  due 
to  the  protest  made  by  one  side  of  his  nature  against  a 
weakening  of  the  other.  He  talked  of  the  old  ideals 
because  he  was  not  so  sure  of  them  as  he  had  been. 
Something  had  come  between  him  and  them, — a  girl's 
face.  He  could  not  talk  of  the  rights  of  humanity  to 
Edith  Estee.  In  her  presence  he  could  not  think  of  them. 
He  was  an  enthralled  Samson,  and  while  watching  as  he 
had  never  watched  before  for  every  change  in  her  most 
changeful  face,  he  could  not  remember  that  there  was 
anything  else  in  the  universe  worth  a  man's  thought.  He 
had  never  felt  the  power  of  a  woman's  charm  before  and 
he  was  ignorant  of  all  arts  to  defend  himself.  He  gave 
himself  up  to  it  with  an  abandon  that  terrified  himself 
when  he  realized  it.  Then  he  would  tear  himself  away 
and  try  to  set  himself  right  by  preaching  his  most  exact 
ing  creeds  to  Joyce,  who  had  none  of  that  numbing  power 
to  charm  a  man  away  from  his  sterner  ideals.  She  was 
only  his  pupil  and  his  fellow-worker.  But  when  he  left 
her,  to  swing  back  himself,  unwillingly  but  surely,  into  the 
circle  of  Edith's  influence,  Joyce  was  in  no  mood  to  listen 
to  Paul's  more  circumscribed  views  of  the  future,  in  which 
the  welfare  of  humanity  in  general  held  a  very  small  share. 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  195 

So  Paul  went  away,  wondering  how  it  had  come  about 
that  he  should  have  said  the  things  he  had  said  and  put  a 
barrier  between  them  when  he  had  meant,  if  possible,  to 
ensure  that  there  should  never  be  any  barrier  between 
them  more.  They  were  farther  apart  than  ever,  and  in 
some  way  it  was  partly  his  fault,  though  he  didn't  under 
stand  just  how.  She  was  more  highly  wrought  than  he, 
he  thought  humbly  ;  he  must  try  to  understand  the  finer 
feelings  by  which  she  was  swayed. 

And  Joyce  went  back  to  her  work  in  the  evening,  but 
the  words  that  came  into  her  head  were  not  words  that 
she  would  have  wanted  to  write  down.  Why  should  she 
mind  what  he  had  said  ?  It  was  nothing  to  her.  She 
knew  her  work  and  was  doing  it,  and  if  he  disapproved  it 
was  only  what  was  to  be  expected  from  the  world,  the 
outside  world  which  didn't  understand.  There  was  no 
question  at  all  about  what  was  right.  She  must  live  her 
own  life  and  learn  not  to  mind  criticism.  Of  course  his 
criticism  was  no  more  than  that  of  any  other  kindly 
stranger  who  might  happen  to  take  an  interest  in  her 
doings.  And  then  she  tried  to  write,  and  couldn't,  and 
cried  a  little,  and  concluded  that  perhaps  she  was  nervous 
to-night,  and  she  wouldn't  try  to  write  any  more,  but  go 
down  and  let  Dru  pet  her  into  quiet  instead. 

And  neither  understood  that  the  jar  was  simply  the 
inevitable  outcome  when  the  complex  feminine  nature 
and  the  simpler  nature  of  man  meet,  and  that  in  the  clash 
they  were  learning  the  first  great  lesson  of  the  Master 
Love,  to  recognize  and  respect  each  other's  right  of 
individuality. 


XXI. 

THE  most  absorbing  question  with  Stephen  Hale  at 
this  time,  (in  a  professional  direction,  that  is  to  say,)  was 
how  and  where  it  might  be  possible  to  find  Tom  Garner. 
There  were  many  reasons  for  his  earnestness  in  the  mat 
ter.  For  one  thing  it  appealed  to  that  instinctive  desire 
of  his  to  punish  all  wrong-doers  which  sometimes  made 
it  hard  for  his  friends  to  remember  the  more  amiable 
qualities  of  his  nature.  It  also  appealed  to  his  profes 
sional  ambition,  for  this  case  was  one  of  the  first  in  which 
he  was  associated  with  a  certain  prominent  firm  of  law 
yers  in  Chicago,  with  whom  he  hoped  to  establish  closer 
relations.  Besides  all  this,  there  was  a  third  element 
down  in  the  bottom  of  his  mind  which  perhaps  he  did  not 
very  often  drag  up  to  the  light.  Tom  Garner  was  a 
friend  of  Karl  Bahrdt's,  and  Hale  was  growing  to  hate 
Karl  Bahrdt  with  a  bitterness  that  was  a  new  experience 
to  his  just  soul.  He  did  not  seek  to  justify  it  or  even  to 
explain  it.  But  if  it  would  sting  Bahrdt  to  have  his 
friend  disgraced,  the  friend's  chances  for  mercy  at  Hale's 
hands  were  slight. 

This  was  all  in  the  background  of  his  mind  when,  one 
day,  he  called  upon  Miss  Estee.  His  natural  reticence 
had  prevented  his  ever  mentioning  the  subject  to  her, 
though  he  told  her  more  of  his  personal  and  even  profes 
sional  affairs  than  he  ever  told  anyone  else.  They  were 
friends  of  long  standing.  She  had  defended  him  against 
his  aspersers  from  his  boyhood  up  and  she  found  in  him 
now  a  completeness  of  type  that  pleased  her  artistic 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  197 

sense.  She  could  not  easily  understand  the  fear  Edith 
seemed  to  have  of  him,  for  "  the  boy,"  as  she  called  him, 
had  never  overawed  her  in  the  least.  But  then  she  did 
not  treat  Edith's  fear  very  seriously. 

Hale  found  her  on  this  day  at  her  writing-desk,  which 
was  covered  with  a  litter  of  manuscript,  books  and  maga 
zines.  She  turned  her  back  upon  these  to  greet  him,  and 
then  leaned  back  to  watch  him  with  a  tentative  expect 
ancy,  as  though  she  were  waiting  for  him  to  say  something 
that  was  worth  taking  note  of.  Some  people  found  this  ex 
pectant  manner  of  hers  embarrassing,  as  intimating  that 
they  were  cumberers  of  the  earth  to  no  good  purpose  if 
they  remained  commonplace  and  stupid  after  the  fashion 
in  which  they  had  been  created,  when  they  might  have 
used  the  opportunity  she  afforded  them  of  being  effec 
tive. 

_  But  if  they  failed,  she  seldom  did,  which  perhaps  gave 
her  as  much  satisfaction. 

"  I  have  just  been  to  see  Mr.  Jefferson,"  Hale  said, 
dropping  his  hat  on  the  floor.  "  He  seems  to  be  failing 
this  summer.  He  wanted  me  to  remind  him  of  what  pro 
visions  he  had  made  in  his  will.  He  said  he  had  forgot 
ten  himself." 

"  Did  he  really  conform  to  the  customs  of  the  world 
sufficiently  to  make  a  will  ?"  Miss  Estee  asked.  "That 
is  a  surprise.  I  should  as  soon  have  expected  him  to  be 
concerned  about  the  salvation  of  his  soul  as  about  the 
distribution  of  his  property." 

"  I  have  had  the  honor  of  being  his  legal  adviser  for 
some  years,"  Hale  remarked  drily. 

"  To  be  sure  ;  and  one  might  as  well  expect  you  to  for 
get  about  ^he  salvation  of  your  soul  as  the  distribution  of 
your  property,"  she  retorted,  with  evident  pleasure  in  the 
characterization.  "  By  the  way,  who  is  his  heir?  Why, 
— "  She  sat  up  straight,  with  sudden  animation.  "  It 


198  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

can  only  be  his  granddaughter.  I  hadn't  thought  of 
that.  Isn't  it  his  granddaughter  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  he  said.  There  could  be  no  secret  about  it, 
but  he  let  the  fact  slip  from  him  with  a  certain  reluct 
ance. 

Miss  Estee  said  nothing  for  a  minute.  She  stared  at 
him  with  an  intently  absent  look,  a  red  spot  glowing  on 
each  cheek.  "I  wish  Helen  could  have  known,"  she  said 
at  last.  "  So  he  really  admits  that  he  was  conscious  of 
her  existence,  and  that  he  owes  something  to  her  child  !  " 

"  He  could  hardly  question  her  existence,"  said  Hale. 

"  You  do  not  understand  the  language  of  philosophy," 
she  said  with  a  ready  delight  in  any  verbal  tangle.  "One 
of  the  first  things  you  have  to  learn,  when  you  try  to  be 
philosophical,  is  that  nothing  really  exists.  The  other 
theories  may  differ  in  the  different  schools,  but  that  is 
something  they  all  agree  upon,  because  that  is  too  pre 
cious  for  any  school  to  have  a  monopoly  of  it.  As  the 
fairy  godmother  says  in  the  good  old-fashioned  stories, 
when  you  have  found  the  diamond  that  is  lodged  in  the 
head  of  the  walrus  and  the  apple  that  grows  in  the  heart 
of  the  earth,  and  a  few  things  like  that,  the  rest  is  easy. 
Once  bring  yourself  to  know  that  you  are  an  illusion,  and 
that  everything  that  you  see  and  hear  and  feel  and  touch 
is  an  illusion  as  well,  and  everything  else  you  want  to 
prove  is  easy.  Illusion  is  a  very  malleable  substance." 

"  The  existence  of  the  grandchild  may  prove  to  be  il- 
lusionary  also,"  Stephen  answered.  "  I  am  sure  I  wouldn't 
know  how  to  goto  work  to  find  her,  if  it  became  neces 
sary.  This  tracing  people  is  not  what  you  romancers 
make  it  out  to  be." 

"  Don't  throw  discredit  on  an  honest  class  of  people," 
Miss  Estee  retorted.  "  Perhaps  you  will  admit  in  the 
end  that  we  haven't  misled  you  very  far.  What  would 
you  say  if  I  were  to  help  you  find  your  missing  heroine?" 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  199 

"  True,  you  knew  her  mother,"  he  answered  with  new 
interest.  "  Have  you  kept  track  of  the  child  ?" 

"  No,  I  haven't  kept  track  of  her,  as  you  call  it.  She 
and  her  father  vanished  from  my  sight  when  Helen 
died.  But  then  I  am  a  romancer,  and  know  things  that 
are  hidden  from  men  of  the  law."  With  a  sparkle  in  her 
eyes  she  turned  to  the  writing-desk.  A  little  drawer  gave 
up  to  her  hand  a  faded  morocco  case.  She  opened  it  and 
looked  quietly  a  moment  at  two  faces  it  held,  as  though 
renewing  acquaintance  with  something  half  forgotten,  be 
fore  she  handed  it  to  Stephen. 

"That  is  Helen  Jefferson,"  she  said  quietly,  " — and  her 
husband." 

She  watched  him  with  a  demure  expectancy,  waiting  to 
hear  him  exclaim  upon  the  resemblance  to  Joyce  Mabie. 
To  her  eyes  it  was  very  marked.  There  was  the  same 
erect  poise  of  the  head,  the  same  straight  gaze  in  the  eyes, 
the  same  sensitive  droop  of  the  mouth.  It  was  Joyce 
Mabie  a  little  more  wilful,  a  little  more  rebellious,  a  little 
more  beautiful  than  he  might  have  seen  her  any  day.  But 
she  had  not  counted  upon  Stephen's  peculiar  lack  of  imag 
ination  and  the  difference  that  the  old  fashion  in  dress  and 
hair  would  make  to  a  masculine  eye,  accustomed  to  judge 
of  effects  rather  than  of  details. 

"  Ah,  indeed,"  he  said  with  polite  interest.  Her  little 
dramatic  effect  was  entirely  spoiled.  She  looked  at  him 
with  silent  indignation,  and  made  a  marginal  note  in  her 
mind  that  Edith's  judgment  was  often  instinctively 
correct. 

He  looked  at  the  other  portrait.  A  long  face,  with  a 
drooping  eye,  a  perfect  nose,  a  mouth  whose  smile  could 
not  be  hidden  by  the  long,  delicate  moustache  that  shaded 
it. 

"She  eloped  with  a  worthless  fellow,  didn't  she  ?"  Hale 
asked.  "  I  have  heard  so,  and  his  face  shows  it." 


2OO  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

Miss  Estee  caught  the  case  from  his  hand  with  a  sudden 
movement  and  snapped  it  to. 

"  He  was  an  artist,"  she  said  after  a  moment,  keeping 
her  voice  steady  with  an  effort.  "  That  was  enough  to 
discredit  him  with  a  man  like  Mr.  Jefferson.  It  was  said 
that  he  was  a  spendthrift.  Whether  that  was  true  or  not 
I  cannot  say.  Bohemians  must  bear  that  reputation,  I 
suppose,  and  he  was  a  Bohemian  to  his  very  shadow.  It 
was  also  said,  as  you  just  remarked,  that  he  was  a  worth 
less  fellow  and  a  dissipated  man.  That  was  a  lie."  She 
put  the  case  back  upon  the  table,  but  kept  her  hand 
upon  it. 

Hale  perceived  that  he  had  blundered,  and  made  an 
awkward  attempt  at  turning  the  conversation.  But  Miss 
Estee  did  not  help  him  as  usual,  and  he  soon  took  advan 
tage  of  a  break  to  make  his  adieus. 

Miss  Estee  watched  him  swinging  down  the  gravel  walk 
with  the  nearest  approach  to  sympathy  with  Edith's  feel 
ing  that  she  had  ever  had.  She  turned  to  look  again  at 
the  face  of  the  man  who  had  been  able,  whatever  his 
faults,  to  win  one  woman  to  throw  in  her  fortunes  with  his, 
and  to  make  another  remain  his  defender  for  twenty  years. 
Be  it  more  or  less,  that  was  what  Stephen  Hale  could 
never  do. 

Then  she  remembered  that  she  hadn't  told  him,  after 
all,  that  Joyce  Mabie  was  Helen  Jefferson's  child.  Tom 
Garner's  freak  of  dropping  the  "  Mabie  "  in  those  youthful 
days  had  thrown  them  all  off  the  track.  Well,  Stephen 
might  find  it  out  in  his  own  way  now. 


XXII. 

"  SEE  here,  Karl,  I  wish  you  would  take  yourself  and 
your  reform  rubbish  off  to  Kamtchatka,  or  wherever  else 
you  please  outside  of  Hereward.  What  is  that  stuff  you 
are  putting  Miss  Mabie  up  to  write  for  you  ? " 

"  Oh,  it  is  something  that  I  need." 

"  Do  you  propose  to  offer  that  girl  as  a  sacrifice  on  your 
revolutionary  altar  ?  " 

"  Does  she  call  it  a  sacrifice  ?" 

"  No,  but  that  has  nothing  to  do  with  it,"  Paul  retorted. 
"  You  are  taking  her  time  and  her  strength  and  all  her  in 
terest  in  life  for  your  purposes,  and  what  good  is  going  to 
come  of  it  ?  I  saw  her  the  other  day  when  she  had  been 
working  till  she  was  in  a  tremble,  and  she  has  been  keep 
ing  it  up.  I  can't  get  a  word  with  her." 

"  Well,  what  of  it  ?     It  is  all  for  her  own  good." 

"  Will  it  be  for  her  good  to  break  down  ? " 

"  Pooh  !  No  danger  of  that !  She  is  strong,  and  it  is 
as  well  that  she  should  learn  what  work  is.  It  was  for 
that  reason  I  told  her  it  must  be  done  without  delay.  It 
will  be  the  best  thing  for  her." 

"  You  are  an  outer  barbarian,  and  you  don't  know  any 
thing  about  it.  I  have  just  as  much  right  to  say  it  is  not 
good  for  her." 

"  Very  well,  then  it  surely  rests  with  her  to  decide. 
You  can  leave  it  to  her." 

"  That  sounds  confoundedly  sure  on  your  part,"  Paul 
chafed.  The  tension  of  the  last  few  days  was  telling  on 
him.  "  You  are  responsible  for  this  enthusiasm  of  hers," 


2O2  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

he  broke  out,  "and  you  are  spurring  her  on  to  extremes 
to  which  she  would  not  be  at  all  inclined  to  go  by  herself. 
I'd  like  to  know  what  you  are  doing  it  for." 

"  As  I  said,  for  her  own  good.     You  do  not  understand." 

"  If  you  mean  anything  special " 

"  I  mean  something  special." 

"  Then  I  wish  you  would  be  plainer  about  it." 

Bahrdt  turned  restlessly  away. 

"  I  do  not  care  to  speak  plainer.  It  is  enough  for  me  to 
say  that  I  am  acting  the  part  of  a  friend  to  a  girl  who  has 
not  many,  and  who  may  soon  find  that  her  work  is  the 
only  thing  she  can  lean  upon.  Work  is  a  sure  safeguard. 
It  is  the  only  thing  that  one  can  trust  at  last.  For  that 
reason  I  wish  her  to  feel  that  she  is  needed  in  the  work  of 
that  cause  where  her  sympathies  are  already  engaged. 
For  that  reason  I  have  made  this  work  for  her  to  do.  The 
time  may  come  when  she  will  be  glad  to  have  it  to  keep 
her  from  despair." 

"  You  mean  because  of  her  father  ? " 

Bahrdt  flashed  a  surprised  look  at  him,  but  answered 
without  hesitation,  "  Yes." 

"  I  heard  the  story  as  a  rumor,"  Paul  said  quietly. 
"What  credit  do  you  give  it?" 

"  It  is  probably  true,"  Bahrdt  answered  gloomily.  "  I 
never  understood  Tom  Garner.  He  is  lawless  to  the  very 
bottom  of  his  nature, — yet  not  aggressively  so.  I  have 
sometimes  thought  that  the  artistic  sense  of  fitness  re 
placed  in  his  case  a  missing  moral  sense,  and  did  it  so  well 
that  few  people  perceived  the  substitution." 

"  It  sounds  well  as  a  theory,"  Paul  said  a  little  impa 
tiently.  He  did  not  altogether  relish  the  idea  that 
Joyce's  father  should  be  discussed  in  that  way.  "  But 
I'm  not  sure  that  we  know  very  much  about  the  motives 
or  springs  of  action  of  anybody.  People  are  mysteries, 
and  it  is  hard  to  classify  them  even  as  good  and  bad.  Be- 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  203 

sides,  it  is  merely  a  suspicion,  as  I  understand  it.  It  is 
not  even  circumstantially  proven." 

"  No.  Perhaps  my  knowledge  of  the  man  makes  me  too 
ready  to  accept  the  theory.  It  is  too  much  in  character 
to  leave  room  for  much  doubt." 

Paul  moved  away  restlessly. 

"  It  will  break  her  heart !  " 

"His  daughter's?  No,  it  will  not  break  her  heart. 
She  is  made  of  sterner  stuff  than  that.  She  is  not  afraid 
to  face  any  reality.  But  it  will  be  better  for  her  to  have 
firm  hold  upon  some  work, — hard  work." 

"  Is  that  what  you  were  thinking  of  ?  You  are  a  good 
fellow  after  all,  Karl  !"  Paul  relented. 

"  Put  !  The  work  needs  her  as  much  as  she  needs  the 
work.  She  can  do  much  good  if  she  is  ready  to  give  her 
self  up.  That  is  what  I  have  been  looking  forward  to.  I 
have  studied  her.  She  has  the  qualities  that  will  make 
her  a  good  lieutenant.  But  I  have  not  been  sure  of  hold 
ing  her  before.  She  is  young  and  life  is  always  tempting 
to  the  young.  She  could  not  help  me  so  long  as  her 
thoughts  might  turn  with  longing  to  the  ordinary  life  of 
the  world.  Dreams  of  possible  happiness  would  interfere 
with  her  usefulness.  But  if  the  world  throws  her  off,  she 
will  see  that  she  must  not  hold  back.  She  will  have  to 
choose  it  as  her  salvation.  There  is  nothing  else  for 
her."  His  eye  flashed  and  almost  he  seemed  to  rejoice 
in  the  coil  that  snared  her.  At  any  rate,  there  was  some 
thing  in  it  that  Paul  could  not  stand  patiently.  He 
flushed  under  his  fair  skin,  but  he  spoke  coolly. 

"  Oh,  yes,  there  is.  If  she  will  consent  to  be  my  wife, 
that  alternative  is  open  to  her." 

Bahrdt  wheeled  upon  him,  amazement,  chagrin  and  re 
sentment  in  his  face. 

"  Your  wife  ?     So,  is  that  settled  ?  " 

"  Of  course  not.     How  can    a  fellow  settle    anything 


2O4  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

with  your  confounded  socialism  cutting  him  out  all  the 
time?  That  ever  you  should  so  far  forget  the  obliga 
tions  of  friendship  as  to  become  my  rival  in  love, 
Karl ! " 

But  Karl  would  not  smile.  "  It  would  be  a  mistake," 
he  said  passionately.  "  She  has  no  right  to  think  of  love 
if  she  hopes  to  do  any  good  to  the  cause, — no  more  right 
than  /  have,"  he  said,  throwing  his  head  up  and  looking 
Paul  defiantly  in  the  face. 

"  That's  all  a  lot  of  precious  nonsense,"  Paul  retorted 
promptly,  "and  since  you  unfortunately  seem  to  have 
some  influence  with  her,  I  shall  be  much  obliged  to  you 
if  you  will  keep  such  opinions  strictly  to  yourself.  lr  1 
had  the  gift  of  tongues,  as  you  have,  I  would  tell  you  that 
a  man  may  lose  the  best  of  life  if  he  tries  to  feed  his 
heart  as  well  as  his  brain  with  abstractions.  That  has 
been  Mr.  Jefferson's  plan,  and  he  hasn't  made  a  glowing 
success  of  it.  You  may  forswear  love  if  you  want  to.  I 
applaud  your  wisdom,  because  no  woman  would  ever 
dream  of  falling  in  love  with  that  ugly  mug  of  yours  any 
how.  But  there  are  other  people  who  are  good  enough 
for  your  'cause,' — people  who  aren't  wanted  anywhere 
else  in  the  world.  You  might  let  Joyce  Mabie  alone." 

But  Bahrdt  was  not  to  be  appeased  by  his  winning 
abuse.  He  was  disturbed  by  the  news, — more  disturbed 
than  could  be  readily  understood  by  one  who  did  not 
know  his  ascetic  theories  in  regard  to  life  and  happiness, 
and  the  difficulty  he  was  finding  just  now  in  keeping  those 
theories  clear  to  himself.  To  have  his  disciple  desert 
them  seemed  like  treachery. 

"As  you  will,"  he  said  sternly.  "  But  understand  that 
I  shall  certainly  do  all  that  I  can  to  prevent  your  mar 
riage." 

"  Important  if  true.     Why,  you  double-dyed  traitor  ?  " 

"  Because  if  she  marries  she  must  give  up  her  work." 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  2O$ 

"  Not  unless  she  wishes.  I  don't  offer  myself  in  the 
capacity  of  a  domestic  tyrant.  My  inexperience  would 
disqualify  me." 

"  That  is  talk.  If  she  marries,  it  will  be  the  end  of 
her  usefulness  because  it  will  be  the  -end  of  her  interest. 
And  if  she  is  to  do  any  good  in  the  work  she  has  under 
taken,  if  she  is  to  be  anything  more  than  a  dabbler,  she 
must  give  herself  to  it  wholly,  she  must  not  try  to  serve 
two  masters,  she  must  not  give  a  divided  interest.  What 
has  any  one  to  do  with  love  who  has  once  had  a  wider 
vision?  Love  is  a  snare,  a  trap,  the  crowning  personality, 
and  it  should  be  fought,  fought  to  the  death,  by  everyone 
who  would  keep  his  mind  clear,  his  hands  free  to  do  the 
work  he  is  in  the  world  to  do,  his  soul  unstained.  Is  he 
sane,  if  he  risks  this  for  the  sake  of  a  pretty  face  and  a 
soft  smile  ?  " 

He  was  trembling  with  agitation  and  his  pale  face  had 
an  appealing  look  that  accorded  strangely  with  his  stern 
words,  but  Paul  had  been  too  much  absorbed  in  his  own 
interests  to  catch  the  hint  Karl's  last  words  might  have 
given.  He  held  his  peace  a  moment,  mastering  his  first 
impulse  to  knock  his  whilom  friend  down,  but  when  he 
spoke  his  voice  was  quivering  with  indignation. 

"  By  what  right  do  you  lay  the  law  down  for  Miss 
Mabie  ?  By  what  right  do  you  undertake  to  interfere 
with  me  ?  My  word,  Karl,  this  goes  beyond  my  patience. 
You  count  heavily  on  my  friendship  if  you  think  I  can 
tolerate  such  interference." 

Bahrdt  had  recovered  his  composure  somewhat,  but  not 
his  serenity. 

"  It  is  nothing  to  me  whether  you  marry, — if  you  marry 
someone  else." 

"  I  am  not  talking  of  anyone  else.  I  am  talking  of 
Joyce  Mabie." 

"  And  I  am  thinking  of  Joyce   Mabie's  good,"  Bahrdt 


2O6  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

said  hotly.  "  She  is  worth  too  much  to  have  her  powers 
wasted  on  a  humdrum  life  of  happy  mediocrity." 

"  I  don't  know  that  the  unhappy  mediocrity  of  the  life 
you  propose  instead  will  be  any  better  for  her." 

"  That  is  for  her  to  say." 

"  I  am  perfectly  willing  to  leave  it  to  her.  If  I  spoke 
to  you  about  it,  it  was  because  I  took  your  interest  for 
granted." 

"  My  interest  in  what  ?  " 

"  In  something  besides  your  own  personal  affairs." 

"  It  is  fair  of  you  to  taunt  me  with  being  absorbed  in 
personal  affairs." 

"  I  don't  care  what  you  are  absorbed  in,  provided  you 
will  not  interfere  with  mine." 

"  You  are  able  to  speak  for  yourself,  I  suppose." 

"  And  I  mean  to." 

Bahrdt  did  not  answer.  Paul  watched  him  a  moment 
in  wrathy  silence  and  then  turned  abruptly  and  left  him. 
He  was  angrier  than  he  had  ever  been  since  his  school 
boy  days,  and  with  his  anger  there  mingled  a  personal  re 
sentment  that  Karl  should  think  so  slightingly  of  him. 
Did  Joyce  share  that  opinion,  with  others  ? 


XXIII. 

WHEN  Paul  went  to  High  street,  which  he  did  as  soon 
as  he  thought  he  could  trust  his  temper,  he  was  met  with 
the  information  that  Joyce  had  denied  herself  to  all  vis 
itors.  Dru  tried  to  convey  it  in  as  impersonal  a  manner 
as  possible,  and  expatiated  in  gay  confidences  on  the 
girl's  inky  fingers  and  inspiration-tumbled  hair,  but  Paul 
had  a  premonition  of  disaster.  This  grew  into  dismay 
when  the  next  day  brought  the  same  answer.  That  Karl 
was  at  the  bottom  of  it  he  did  not  doubt,  and  for  a  mo 
ment  he  harbored  the  idea  of  a  subtile  revenge.  Edith 
Estee  would  not  refuse  to  see  him,  and  it  would  be  hard 
if  he  could  not  turn  the  conversation  upon  his  dear  friend 
Karl  Bahrdt's  habits,  his  stern  disapproval  of  frivolous 
aims  and  his  devotion  to  his  work  to  the  point  of  keeping 
himself  in  continual  poverty.  A  little  of  the  right  sort  of 
praise,  judiciously  expressed,  might  make  it  quite  as  dif 
ficult  for  that  meddlesome  reformer  to  gain  access  to  his 
charmer  as  Paul  was  finding  it  in  his  own  case.  But  he 
relented  sufficiently  to  wait  another  day,  and  fortu 
nately  for  Karl  this  time  Joyce  did  not  refuse  to  see 
him. 

He  congratulated  himself  upon  this  concession,  but 
when  she  came  down  he  was  swiftly  conscious  that  there 
was  little  gained  by  it.  Something  had  happened.  He 
felt  in  some  subtle  way  that  she  had  put  him  far  away 
from  her.  The  difference  chilled  and  alarmed  him  even 
before  she  spoke.  All  the  jesting  reproaches  which  he 
had  meant  to  heap  upon  her  died  on  his  lips. 


208  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

11 1  didn't  know  that  the  book  was  going  to  oust  me 
altogether,"  he  said  with  pathetic  directness. 

"  I  have  been  very  busy,"  she  answered  with  no  attempt 
at  evasion.  "  And  I  shall  be  busier  still.  I  must  be,  to 
do  the  work  that  is  waiting.  I  can  see  that  it  worries 
Dru,  so  I  have  decided  to  go  back  to  Chicago.  That  is 
why —  She  stopped  abruptly,  but  he  guessed  she  meant 
that  this  was  why  she  had  consented  to  see  him. 

He  looked  at  her  dumbly,,  marvelling  at  her  decisive 
ness  and  helpless  before  it.  He  had  not  had  time  to  real 
ize  that  it  was  all  artificial, — an  armor  woven  by  her  fears. 
She  did  not  look  at  him  as  she  went  on  explaining  in  dis 
passionate  tones. 

"  Mr.  Bahrdt's  paper  is  there,  for  one  thing.  You 
know  I  have  been  working  on  it  for  some  time.  I  shall 
have  more  to  do  with  it  after  this.  He  has  been  explain 
ing  his  plans,  and  putting  it  more  into  my  hands.  Then 
this  book,  and  then  other  things  when  it  is  clone.  I  don't 
know  all,  but  so  long  as  I  can  do  the  work, — and  Mr. 
Badrdt  thinks  I  can, — I  shall  go  on  with  it." 

"  You  seem  to  have  reached  a  point  where  every  pros 
pect  pleases  and  only  man  is  vile,"  he  said,  recovering 
himself  a  little.  "  If  you  have  actually  determined  to 
know  us  no  more,  you  might  at  least  pretend  to  a  little 
regret  and  not  be  so  heartlessly  severe  about  it.  How 
soon  do  you  depart  ?  " 

"  I  must  go  in  a  day  or  two." 

"  Are  you  glad  to  go  ?  " 

"  I  am  very  glad  to  have  found  my  work." 

"  How  do  you  know  it  is  your  work  ?  " 

"  Because  it  is  what  I  have  always  wanted  to  do,  though 
I  didn't  know  just  how.  It  will  make  my  life  seem  worth 
living." 

"  Has  it  been  a  hollow  mockery  so  far  ?  " 

"  I  have  not  been  living  to  any  particular  purpose." 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  2Og 

"Then  I  am  to  congratulate  you  upon  having  found  an 
opportunity  to  justify  your  existence  ?  " 

She  lifted  her  eyes  for  a  shy  little  look  that  was  hardly 
in  keeping  with  her  role. 

"  Yes,  and  to  wish  me  success." 

"  I  don't  know  whether  I  shall  or  not.  If  a  good,  thor 
ough  defeat  would  leave  you  ready  to  listen  to  someone 
besides  Karl,  I  am  not  sure  but  that  I  shall  wish  you  the 
very  reverse  of  success." 

She  looked  at  him  frowningly  under  her  eyebrows. 
"  Don't  you  think  that  if  there  is  some  real  work  right 
before  my  hands  I  ought  to  do  it,  and  be  glad  to  do  it  ?  " 

"  I  don't  see  any  necessity  for  you  to  shut  yourself 
away  from  everybody  who — cares  for  you." 

"  If  I  am  going  to  work,  I  must  be  free  to  work.  I 
must  not  let  myself  be  drawn  aside.  That  would  mean 
in  the  end  simply  frittering  myself  away.  I  don't  sup 
pose  I  can  do  very  much  at  the  best,  and  in  order  to  do 
anything  at  all  I  must  keep  myself  from  being  dis 
tracted." 

It  sounded  like  an  echo  of  Bahrdt's  words.  Paul  rec 
ognized  it  and  smiled  a  little  sarcastically. 

"  I  think  I  would  like  to  have  you  congratulate  me,  in 
turn,  on  being  so  fortunate  as  to  have  no  uncomfortable 
standards  to  keep  preaching  reproach  at  me  when  I  en 
joy  life  after  the  fashion  into  which  I  was  born.  Will 
you  ?" 

"  You  didn't  mind  so  long  as  I  played  with  the  subject 
in  a  dilletantish  way,"  she  said  urgently.  "  But  when  I 
show  that  I  am  in  earnest,  you  don't  like  it.  I  would  be 
ashamed  of  myself  if  I  were  not  willing  to  devote  myself 
to  it  wholly,  heart  and  soul,  when  the  opportunity  comes. 
It  is  the  only  thing  that  would  make  my  former  profes 
sions  seem  true." 

"  If  you  are  doing  it  for  the  sake  of  consistency " 


2IO  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"  I  am  doing  if  because  I  want  to  make  my  life  worth 
while." 

"  And  you  think  this  is  the  best  way  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  she  said  defiantly,  and  she  met  his  searching 
look  without  flinching. 

"  It  seems  to  me  hard  and  cold.  I  don't  see  for  my 
part  why  you  should  banish  your  friends  because  you 
want  to  help  humanity." 

"  Mr.  Bahrdt  says— 

"  I  like  Karl,  as  you  know,  but  I  would  rather  hear 
what  you  think  in  this  matter.  You  are  not  deciding 
upon  his  advice  alone,  are  you  ?  Don't  say  you  are,  or  I 
shall  feel  like  calling  him  to  account  for  the  ruin  of  your 
life." 

"  I  decide  on  my  own  judgment,"  she  said  proudly. 
"  It  is  the  only  life  that  would  satisfy  me.  I  would  hate 
myself  and  be  ashamed  of  myself  for  all  time  if  I  chose 
anything  else.  It  is  the  only  thing  for  me." 

"  Do  you  think  that  all  the  women  who  live  private 
lives  of  helpfulness  and  love,  who  are  an  inspiration  to  all 
that  know  them,  are  living  wasted  lives  ?  " 

"  No,  no  !  "  she  cried  with  a  flash  of  reproach.  "  I  am 
not  blaming  anyone.  I  am  only  trying  to  see  for  myself 
what  is  best  for  me, — and  you  are  making  it  hard,"  she 
added  under  her  breath. 

He  wondered  whether  the  best  argument  would  not  be 
to  take  her  in  his  arms  and  kiss  her  cold  lips  until  she 
knew  what  it  was  she  was  putting  aside,  but  he  crushed 
his  hands  instead  and  turned  his  head  away.  He  was  too 
proud  to  wring  a  consent  from  her.  Unless  her  love  was 
given  without  compulsion,  there  would  be  no  grace  in  the 
gift.  If  he  must  woo  her  by  syllogism  and  demonstration, 
so  be  it.  It  would  not  become  either  him  or  her  to  make 
his  appeal  a  low  one. 

"  Do  you  think  that  Mr.   Jefferson's    life  has  been  an 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  2 1 I 

ideal  one?"  he  asked  presently.  He  had  been  looking 
absently  at  the  tower  which  loomed  beyond  the  edge  of 
their  garden. 

"  Why  ? " 

"  You  are  working  on  his  theory.  You  are  choosing 
sociology  instead  of  astronomy,  but  you  are  choosing  it  in 
the  same  way,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  human  interests. 
His  only  crime  was  that  he  was  incapable  of  loving,  but 
he  has  been  punished  with  solitary  imprisonment  for  life, 
you  see.  In  his  old  age  he  is  left  alone,  sick  as  he  is  now, 
with  only  a  hired  attendant." 

"  Is  he  sick  ? "  she  asked,  with  surprise. 

"  You  didn't  know  ? " 

She  flushed.  "You  think  it  would  have  been  better  if 
I  had  been  carrying  him  soup  rather  than  staying  at 
home  to  write  ?  " 

_  "  No,"  he  said  gently.  "  Some  have  a  talent  for  soup  and 
some  for-  writing,  and  you  would  better  do  what  you  can 
do.  I  was  only  thinking  that  it  points  my  mention  of  his 
solitude.  You  live  in  the  nearest  house,  but  even  you  did 
not  know  of  his  need,  because  he  has  shut  himself  apart 
so  long." 

"And  you  think  I  am  like  him  ?" 

"  You  will  be  like  him  if  you  are  going  to  vow  yourself 
to  this  work  to  the  exclusion  of  everything  else." 

"  I  am  going  to  give  myself  to  this  work  to  the  exclu 
sion  of  everything  else,"  she  said  steadily.  "  Other  people 
have  other  interests  in  life,  other  claims  which  it  would 
not  be  right  for  them  to  neglect.  I  have  no  other  claim 
upon  me — 

He  made  a  sudden  movement,  and  she  added  hurriedly, 

"  And  I  shall  not  allow  anything  to  make  a  claim  upon 
me.  I  am  choosing  this  as  my  life-work.  I  am  going  to 
devote  myself  to  it.  This  summer  has  been  a  pleasant 
interlude,  but  it  cannot  last,"  She  spoke  firmly, — too 


212  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

firmly,  perhaps.  It  suggested  that  she  feared  to  leave 
any  obscurity.  At  least  there  was  some  consolation  in 
knowing  that  she  had  been  weighing  the  matter.  It  was 
clear  she  meant  him  to  understand  the  import  of  her  de 
cision,  and  if  he  gave  her  a  chance  now  she  would  state  it 
unequivocally.  This  flashed  through  his  mind  while  she 
spoke  and  he  decided  swiftly  that  he  would  not  give  her 
the  chance.  An  unspoken  decision  might  be  more  easily 
changed  than  one  which  had  been  recorded  in  words. 
His  tactics  now  must  be  to  avoid  the  understanding  he 
had  been  seeking,  until  he  could  bring  other  influences  to 
bear. 

"  The  only  thing  I  don't  like  about  your  little  scheme  is 
that  you  have  left  no  place  for  me  in  it,"  he  said  noncha 
lantly.  "  You  will  be  living  the  life  of  your  choice,  winning 
fame  and  an  approving  conscience.  And  I,  meantime, 
will  be  living  my  insignificant  little  life  after  the  lower 
lights  accorded  me,  and  you  will  never  think  of  me,  or  if 
you  happen  to  come  across  my  name  somewhere,  you  will 
blush  to  remember  that  you  ever  felt  a  moment's  interest 
in  so  contemptible  a  creature,  who  didn't  live  for  any 
great  purpose.  I  shall  have  to  derive  what  consolation  I 
can  from  the  fact  that  there  are  no  tall  tower  walls  be 
tween  my  friends  and  me."  And  he  picked  up  his  hat 
and  retreated  in  good  order. 

But  Joyce  sat  for  a  long  time  watching  soberly  the 
shadow  thrown  by  Mr.  Jefferson's  tower,  creeping  minute 
by  minute  toward  her  over  the  grass. 


XXIV. 

AT  the  gate  Rodman  met  Prof.  Hamill,  who  turned 
with  a  pleased  exclamation  and  walked  back  with  him  to 
the  corner. 

"  So  sorry  I  wasn't  at  home  !  You  won't  come  in 
again  ?  Then  I'll  walk  a  little  way  with  you.  Unless 
you  are  in  a  hurry  ? " 

"No,"  said  Paul,  with  a  rueful  laugh.  "I'm  not  wanted 
anywhere.  There  isn't  anything  to  be  in  a  hurry  about." 

"  That's  nice,"  said  the  Professor  genially,  quite  uncon 
scious  of  any  under  meaning.  "  Oh,  I  wanted  to  speak  to 
you  about  Baily.  Would  it  be  possible  for  you  to  find  a 
place  for  him  in  that  human  hive  of  yours?" 

"  Ben  Baily  ?  Why,  he'd  never  come.  The  last  time 
I  saw  him  he  gave  me  to  understand  that  I  would  stay 
myself  at  my  own  proper  peril.  He  would  no  more 
come  himself  than  he  would  consent  to  wear  hand 
cuffs." 

"  Then  I'm  afraid  some  evil  may  befall  him,  that's  all," 
said  the  Professor  mournfully.  "  Perhaps  it  won't  be  a 
cup  of  hemlock  juice,  but  if  it  isn't  it  is  only  because 
Hereward  isn't  Athens." 

"  Poor  old  Ben  !     What  has  he  been  doing  now  ?  " 

"  You've  heard  of  what  happened  last  night  ?" 

"  Nothing.     I   thought  he    was  away.     I   haven't  seen 

him  for  several  weeks." 

• 

"  He  has  been  away,  on  one  of  his  regular  country 
tramps,  but  he  came  back  a  few  days  ago.  I  believe  he 
thinks  the  town  can't  be  trusted  too  long  alone.  And 


214  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

this  time  he  probably  thought  his  apprehensions  were 
justified." 

"  What  has  he  done  ?  Disregarded  the  divine  right  of 
every  free-born  citizen  to  be  as  wicked  as  the  thoughts  of 
his  heart  may  prompt  ?  " 

"  Exactly.  The  trouble  is  that  in  the  eye  of  the  law  a 
man's  conscience  is  as  much  his  castle  as  his  house  is, 
and  our  friend  will  get  into  trouble  if  he  doesn't  heed  it. 
You  know  the  new  brick  business  block  that  Hale  has 
been  putting  up  and  the  '  Hereward  Eagle  '  has  been  flap 
ping  its  wings  over  ?  Well,  the  walls  are  down  this  morn 
ing." 

"Fallen  ?" 

"  How  else  ? "  asked  the  Professor  so  demurely  that 
Paul  laughed. 

"  But  why  should  you  connect  it  with  Ben  Baily  ?  Does 
anyone  else  suspect  him  ?  " 

"  I  hope  not.  And  I  may  be  wrong.  I  may  do  him 
more  than  justice." 

"  Or  less." 

"Of  course.  It  is  just  the  way  you  look  at  it.  He  was 
examining  that  piece  of  work  yesterday.  I  happened  to 
see  him,  and  this  morning  I  remembered  it,  and  the  way 
Baily's  mind  works.  You  may  not  have  heard  of  it,  but 
-there  has  been  some  talk  about  whether  that  building  was 
safe  or  not.  A  small  part  of  it  fell  a  few  days  ago  and 
was  patched  up.  The  trouble  was  that  the  contractor 
took  it  at  so  low  a  figure  that  I  suppose  he  had  to  use 
poor  material  to  save  himself  from  loss.  In  a  city  the 
building  would  probably  have  been  condemned,  if  public 
attention  had  been  directed  to  it.  But  Hereward  has  no 
Building  Inspector.  Who  among  the  citizens  felt  called 
upon  to  interfere?  I  didn't.  You  didn't.  I  won't 
.answer  for  Baily." 

"Nor   I,"  said   Rodman,  "though    perhaps  we  are  too 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  21$ 

much  inclined  to  credit  him  with  a  principal  share  in  all 
the  visitations  of  divine  wrath  that  befall  the  community. 
How  do  you  know  that  Providence  didn't  manage  it  with 
out  help  ?" 

"  Baily  wouldn't  have  waited  to  give  Providence  an 
opportunity,"  said  Hamill  drily.  "  But  my  suspicions  are 
my  own.  It  might  not  be  kind  to  Baily  to  make  them 
public.  Only, — if  you  have  anything  you  could  set  him 
at  that  would  take  up  quite  a  good  deal  of  his  time,  per 
haps  it  would  be  as  well." 

"  I'll  see  about  it,"  said  Paul  with  a  laugh,  "  but  I'm 
afraid  it  will  be  difficult.  Civilization  is  a  red  rag  to 
him." 

"  Considering  the  man,  that  is  an  arraignment  of  civili 
zation,"  said  Hamill  quietly. 

"  Why  ?  Because  Baily  is  a  good  fellow  ?  Oh,  well,  I 
-don't  go  back  on  that.  But  then  I'm  not  prepared  to  go 
back  on  civilization,  either.  It  is  clean,  for  one  thing 
That  makes  up  for  a  good  deal  of  plain  viciousness." 

Hamill  grinned  appreciatively.  "  You're  a  godly  youth, 
then.  Go  along,  Beau  Brummel,  and  try  your  arts  on  the 
Hereward  gadfly." 

They  parted  at  the  corner,  and  Prof.  Hamill  turned 
back.  As  he  repassed  the  house  of  the  old  astronomer, 
the  door  was  suddenly  opened  and  the  housekeeper  came 
hurriedly  down  to  the  gate.  Her  face  was  pale  and 
frightened. 

"  Oh,  won't  you  come  in  and  see  Mr.  Jefferson,  Prof. 
Hamill  ?  I'm  afraid  he's  very  bad." 

"  Oh,  I'm  so  sorry,"  he  said,  with  but  a  hazy  idea  of 
what  the  trouble  might  be,  but  turning  in.  "  Can  I  do 
anything  ?  " 

She  began  to  cry  nervously.  "  He's  talking  out  of  his 
head.  I  can't  abide  to  have  anyone  talking  out  of  his 
head.  I'm  that  scared." 


2l6  APPRENTICES  TO  DESIGN Y. 

"  Oh,  I'm  so  sorry,"  he  said  again,  chagrined  at  her 
helplessnesss  and  conscious  of  his  own.  "  I  think  perhaps 
you'd  better  run  across  for  Mrs.  Hamill.  And  the  doctor. 
And — "  He  looked  up  the  street,  but  Rodman  was 
already  out  of  sight,  so  he  went  up  alone  to  the  sick-room 
of  the  solitary  old  man. 

Paul  wandered  on,  and,  as  was  his  wont  when  troubled 
in  mind,  his  feet  carried  him  out  into  the  fields.  It  was 
the  middle  of  the  afternoon,  and  the  sun  was  warm  and 
the  grasses  under  his  feet  were  dusty  and  brown.  The 
grasshoppers  flew  up  in  swarms  about  him  and  the  yellow 
butterflies  flocked  past  in  graceful,  timid  flight.  Men 
were  mowing  in  a  near  meadow,  and  the  rhythmic  whirr 
of  the  machinery  and  the  sweet  scent  of  the  cut  grass  and 
the  intricate  tangle  of  insect  sounds  that  fill  a  summer 
day  all  came  blended  together  to  his  senses.  He  gave  lit 
tle  heed  to  any  part  of  it.  The  pressure  of  suspense  and 
of  the  longing  at  his  heart  was  beginning  to  tell  upon  him. 
Only  once  he  glanced  about,  and  then  it  was  to  realize, 
with  a  sort  of  fear,  how  different  the  very  face  of  nature 
would  be  to  him  if  Joyce  Mabie  went  out  of  his  life. 

A  man  who  had  been  watching  the  mowers  caught 
sight  of  him  and  came  across  the  field  toward  him.  It 
was  Ben  Baily,  and  Paul  stopped  with  a  gleam  of  pleasure 
on  his  face1  when  he  recognized  him. 

"  Hello,  Ben  !  I  thought  you'd  gone  off  and  left  me  to 
my  fate.  What  have  you  been  doing  with  yourself  all 
these  weeks  ? ' 

"  Busy,"  said  Ben  laconically. 

"  With  what  ?  " 

"  Doing  things.  And  looking  after  things.  Mostly  the 
latter." 

"  And  earning  public  gratitude,  I  suppose,"  said  Paul 
remembering  the  brick  wall.  "  I'm  afraid  the  public  grati- 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  2 1/ 

tude  is  hardly  substantial  enough  for  you  to  subsist  upon 
it  alone.  Does  it  pay  ?  " 

"  Well,  I  haven't  had  to  hire  a  clerk  to  clip  coupons 
yet,"  he  admitted  cheerfully.  "  Perhaps  you  wouldn't 
say  it  paid,  exactly, — perhaps  not, — but  there  is  a  mighty 
amount  of  satisfaction  about  it,"  he  concluded  with  a  droll 
gratification  in  his  sidelong  glance.  "  So  long  as  I  haven't 
asked  any  woman  to  share  my  fortunes,  I  don't  see  whose 
business  it  is  whether  they're  fat  or  lean.  And  who'd 
look  after  Here  ward  if  I  took  another  job  ? " 

He  looked  so  self-satisfied  that  Rodman*  could  not  re 
sist  the  temptation. 

"  By  the  way,  Ben,  what  made  the  walls  of  Hale's  new 
block  come  down  last  night  ?  " 

"  I  can't  say,"  he  answered  calmly,  though  there  was  a 
tightening  about  his  lips,  "  unless  there's  a  better  use  for 
-men's  life-blood  in  this  here  world  than  to  make  mort 
of  it." 

"  Mort  ?     What  do  you  mean  ? " 

"  That's  what  they  would  have  done,  Hale  and  his  con 
tractor  between  'em,  if  the  ram-shackly  thing  hadn't  gone 
down.  It  was  bound  to  fall,  as  anyone  could  see  that 
hadn't  been  blinded  by  greed  for  gain.  Better  it  fell  last 
night,  with  no  one  around,  than  to-day  with  a  dozen  men 
on  it." 

"  I  didn't  know  it  was  so  bad  as  that,"  said  Paul,  startled 
by  the  thought  and  roused  by  Baily's  stern  tones. 
"  Surely  Hale  didn't  know." 

"  Perhaps  not.  Perhaps  he  thought  it  wasn't  his  busi 
ness  to  know.  What  he  wanted  was  a  fine  brick  block  that 
would  bring  him  in  fifteen  per  cent,  on  his  money.  Maybe 
by  skimping  on  the  cost  he  could  make  it  twenty.  So  he 
let  it  to  the  lowest  bidder  instead  of  to  the  best  workman. 
Then  the  bidders  figured  on  how  much  they  could  cheat 
on  materials  here  and  there,  and  the  one  that  dared  to 


2IS  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

scale  the  closest  got  the  job.  So  he  got  poor  brick  and 
called  it  first  grade,  and  he  made  his  mort  so  thin  that 
his  walls  fell  down  before  he  was  through,  and  if  his  work 
men  had  been  atop  when  it  fell,  he  would  have  been  a 
murderer  after  proving  himself  a  liar  and  a  cheat." 

"It  is  rather  startling  from  that  point  of  view.  But  if 
you  impeach  our  whole  system,  what  would  you  do  ?  " 

"  I  would  prohibit  every  bargain  counter  in  the  country, 
the  same  as  lotteries.  I'd  have  men  and  women  under 
stand  that  they  can't  get  something  for  nothing  without 
there  being  cheating  somewhere  along  the  line.  But, 
Lord,  Lord,  I  don't  mean  to  be  hard  on  poor  human  na 
ture.  You  can't  expect  a  baby  to  keep  its  fingers  off  a 
candy  stick  or  a  woman  to  pass  by  on  the  other  side  when 
she  sees  a  bargain  or  a  man  to  let  his  work  to  the  highest 
bidder  instead  of  to  the  lowest.  'Tain't  in  human  nature 
yet.  Maybe  we  will  grow  to  it  sometime.  In  the  mean 
time,  we  ain't  ready  to  discharge  Providence  as  an  over 
seer."  There  was  a  mischievous  gleam  in  his  sidelong 
glance,  but  he  sedately  stuck  a  blade  of  grass  between  his 
teeth  and  walked  on  with  his  hands  in  his  pockets,  as 
though  he  had  no  greater  interest  in  the  affairs  of  the  uni 
verse  than  any  other  yokel  in  the  field. 

"Ben,  I  wish  you  would  come  back  to  the  Works,"  Paul 
said  presently.  He  had  thrown  himself  down  on  a  slope 
that  fell  away  toward  the  cool  east,  where  he  could  see 
the  mowers  in  the  distance.  "  You  told  me  you  left  be 
cause  you  couldn't  hit  it  off  with  my  uncle.  Don't  you 
think  you  could  manage  with  me  ? " 

"  Oh,  I  dare  say,"  Baily  answered  easily.  "  But  I  have 
another  sort  of  life  before  me  now.  I'm  a  free  lance  and 
answerable  to  no  man.  It  suits  me  better.'' 

"  But  it  doesn't  suit  me.  I  want  you  there.  You  know 
more  about  wood-carving  than  most  people.  I  want  you 
to  come  and  raise  the  standard  of  the  work." 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"  That  isn't  my  business,"  he  said  restively.  "  I  work 
at  my  carving  as  it  is.  I  sell  my  things  in  the  country 
where  I  go,  enough  to  get  me  a  living,  besides  being  a  sort 
of  missionary  work  among  the  farmers.  A  bit  of  fine 
work  like  that,  if  it  is  only  a  knife-box,  does  as  much  good 
as  a  text  framed  and  hung  up  over  the  best  bed.  More, 
if  they  pay  for  the  box  and  get  the  text  for  nothing." 

"  But  that  sort  of  a  roving  life  is  not  the  thing  for 
you." 

"  You  mean  well,  Paul,  but  I  don't  see  but  what  I'm 
the  man  to  say  whether  it  is  the  life  for  me  or  not.  I  do 
have  a  tarnal  grudge  against  putting  my  neck  into  a  hal 
ter,  like.  Why  does  it  rile  people  up  so  like  pizen  to  see 
a  fellow  trotting  along  without  a  rope  around  his  throat  ? 
A  man  can  make  a  blame  fool  of  himself  in  ten  thousand 
different  ways,  and  it's  his  own  business.  He  can  swindle 
an'd  cheat  his  neighbors  and  bully  his  family  and  put  his 
name  ofi  a  sign  board  over  a  saloon,  inviting  the  whole 
community  to  go  to  perdition,  and  they  don't  meddle  with 
him.  But  let  him  set  out  to  live  a  clean,  honest  life  in 
the  way  God  meant  him  to,  if  so  be  that  it  ain't  the  way  of 
the  rest  of  them, — why,  bless  you,  there  ain't  a  man  in  the 
place  that  don't  have  a  right  to  call  him  to  account." 

"  As  for  that,  Ben,  my  boy,  you  get  even  with  the  ma 
jority  of  us  and  leave  a  balance  on  the  other  side." 

"  Well,"  drawled  Ben  without  a  smile,  "  perhaps  I  have 
done  a  little  something  in  that  line  myself." 

"  You  used  to  be  the  crack  workman,  I  remember,"  said 
Paul,  returning  to  the  charge.  "  And  you  earned  very 
good  wages." 

"  Oh,  I've  done  lots  of  fool  things  in  my  day." 

"  What  made  you  leave  ?  " 

"Wanted  to  find  out  if  Hereward  had  a  monopoly  of 
idjets.  It  hasn't." 

"Where  did  you  go  ?     Come,  tell  me  about  it,  Ben." 


22O  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"I  went  to  Chicago  first.  Queer  place  for  a  country 
chap  who'd  been  brought  up  to  think  that  twelve  men  make 
a  crowd  and  twenty  a  howling  mob.  Why,  there's  enough 
men  walking  up  and  down  the  streets  there  from  morning 
to  night  just  looking  for  work  to  make  a  good-sized  town 
by  themselves,  set  'em  off  together  on  some  prairie. 
There  are  places  in  that  city,  with  a  lake  afore  them  to 
give  'em  a  hint  now  and  again  of  what  water  is  good  for, 
so  foul  that  no  animal  but  man  would  live  there.  I've 
walked  there  by  day  and  wondered  that  the  city  didn't 
clear  the  people  out  and  set  fire  to  the  houses.  And 
when  I  walked  there  by  night,  I  wondered  that  God,  if 
he  took  note,  didn't  burn  it  away  with  the  people, — for 
their  own  good."  He  turned  upon  his  back  with  his  hands 
clasped  under  his  head  and  his  eyes  turned  up  to  the  sky 
that  arched  above  them  in  all  the  speckless  splendor  of 
the  summer.  "Well,  it  set  me  a-thinking, — that  and 
some  other  things.  There  weren't  no  lack  of  men  that 
could  tell  how  to  make  the  world  run  straight.  I  took  it 
all  in  like  a  fish.  I  went  to  the  workingmen's  meetings 
and  the  socialists'  clubs  and  the  anarchists'  conclaves. 
There  was  red-hot  talk,  and  every  man  of  them  was  cock 
sure  his  way  was  right.  But  somehow  it  didn't  seem  to 
bring  conviction  to  my  soul,  as  we  used  to  say  at  camp- 
meeting.  It  was  too  red-hot,  and  they  were  too  cock 
sure,  and  it  seemed  to  me  that  they  spent  more  strength 
in  hating  than  in  helping.  So  I  went  to  the  churches  for 
a  spell.  Nothing  red-hot  there.  Everything  soft  and 
cool  and  soothing.  I  was  getting  so  kind  of  petered  out 
with  the  excitement  of  the  labor  meetings  that  I  couldn't 
sleep,  and  the  churches  was  like  a  rest-cure.  I  went 
steady,  every  evening,  if  not  to  one  then  to  another.  But 
one  day  it  came  over  me  all  of  a  sudden  how  they  had 
been  going  on  just  like  that  for  hundreds  and  hundreds  of 
years,  soothing  people  instead  of  making  them  think,  while 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  221 

here  was  the  places  I  had  seen  and  men  living  the  lives  I 
had  seen  'em  live.  Well,  conviction  came  tq  me  all  in  a 
flash,  just  like  what  they  used  to  say  in  camp-meeting, 
only  it  was  conviction  of  the  wrong  sort.  I  got  up  and 
walked  out,  with  the  people  a-staring,  and  I  never  went 
back." 

He  paused  reflectively,  but  Paul,  watching  his  absorbed 
face,  refrained  from  interrupting. 

•"  Then  I  found  that  I  had  come  to  the  end  of  my  sav 
ings  and  I  had  to  join  the  army  that  was  marching  through 
the  streets  looking  for  work.  When  I  looked  at  the 
others  crowding  and  jostling  around  me,  I  felt  mean  and 
held  off,  but  at  last  it  came  to  starving  or  jostling  myself, 
and  that  sort  of  life  soon  makes  a  man  a  wolf.  But  I 
knew  I  was  a  wolf,  which  most  of  them  didn't,  and  when 
I  finally  got  work,  it  seemed  to  me  I  could  hear  the  dying 
cry  of  some  other  starving  fellow  that  I  had  kicked  down 
off' n  the  ladder  to  get  a  footing  myself.  I  tell  you  I  could 
hear  it  as  plain  as  I  hear  my  own  voice.  But  after  I  had 
a  few  square  meals  that  went  away." 

"  Hallucination,  born  of  physical  weakness  and  a  morbid 
conscience,"  put  in  Paul,  but  Baily  was  in  the  swing  of 
talk,  and  he  kept  on  with  the  touch  of  awe  in  his  manner 
that  a  man  must  inevitably  feel  toward  his  own  deepest 
experiences.  He  may  make  a  jest  of  things  in  general, 
but  when  he  tells,  if  he  does,  of  what  he  has  found  in  love 
and  religion,  he  must  be  reverent.  The  experience  of 
those  days,  when  Ben  Baily  had  awakened  to  the  undying 
cry  of  humanity,  had  taken  the  place  of  both  love  and  re 
ligion  with  him. 

"  But  all  the  time  I  kept  up  a  heap  of  thinking,  for  it 
seemed  to  me  like  this,  that  if  there  was  any  way  out  of 
this  coil  of  things,  it  must  be  just  as  much  within  the 
reach  of  plain,  simple  fellows  like  me  that  had  to  do  the 
living,  d'ye  see,  as  for  the  philosophers  and  wise  men  that 


222  APPKEATTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

couldn't  do  any  more  living  in  their  time  than  the  plainest 
man  of  us  all." 

"The  day  of  deliverance  that  Bahrdt  talks  about,"  said 
Paul. 

"Then,  I  joined  the  union."  He  stopped  and  grinned. 
The  solemnity  of  his  tone  was  swept  away.  Paul  heaved 
himself  up  on  one  elbow  with  anticipative  interest. 

"  Well  ? " 

"Well,"  said  Ben  with  his  lazy  drawl,  "  I  wasn't  popular 
somehow." 

"  What  happened  ? " 

"  I  was  boycotted." 

"You?  Boycotted?  Oh,  Ben,  Ben!  Tell  me  how  it 
happened." 

"  I  don't  see  what  there  is  so  all-fired  funny  about  it," 
protested  Ben  Baily.  "  I  wasn't  going  to  let  them  run  me, 
that  was  all.  The  way  of  it  was  this.  There  was  a  strike 
ordered.  It  was  dead  wrong.  Everybody  knew  that,  and 
they  swore  about  going  out,  but  go  they  did,  because  they 
were  ordered.  I  wouldn't.  Lord  Almighty,  when  a  man 
has  started  out  to  see  what  there  is  in  life,  and  is  waiting 
ready  to  take  in  the  biggest  things  that  he  is  big  enough 
to  hold,  he  ain't  going  to  let  a  little  whipper-snapper  with 
a  badge  run  everything  to  suit  himself,  even  to  taking  in 
law  and  conscience.  I  wasn't,  anyhow." 

"What  did  you  do?" 

"  I  staid  at  work.  At  least  I  staid  until  the  strikers 
beat  and  came  back  in  force.  Then  I  concluded  it  would 
tend  to  the  promotion  of  harmony  and  good  will  if  I  left. 
The  fact  is,  I  was  boycotted  and  after  that  I  couldn't  get 
work.  I  would  have  been  ready  to  quit,  because  I  had 
come  to  the  mind  that  I  would  try  to  live  the  way  I 
wanted  to  instead  of  the  way  other  men  wanted  me  to, 
but  when  they  took  to  the  boycott  game  it  riled  me,  and  I 
said  to  myself,  'WVI1  see  who  will  hold  out  longest.' 
Well,  I  did  see.  It  wasn't  me," 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  22$ 

"  You  were  beaten  ? " 

"  I  was  beaten,"  said  Ben  simply.  "  If  I  got  work,  there 
would  come  a  little  billet,  and  the  next  day  my  money  was 
handed  me  in  a  little  envelope,  and  I  was  free  of  the 
world,  but  not  of  that  shop.  The  boarding-house  keepers 
was  warned  not  to  keep  me, — and  they  didn't  stop  to 
argufy.  I  was  a  marked  man.  I  tried  different  things, 
because,  seeing  I  was  in  for  it,  I  meant  to  make  a  clean 
fight.  But  at  last  I  gave  up  and  came  back  to  Hereward." 

Paul's  eyes  were  beginning  to  emit  blue  fire. 

"  You  mean  to  say  that  you  were  hounded  from  place  to 
place  and  kept  out  of  work  ?" 

"  That's  it.     I  was  boycotted." 

"Why,  it  is  outrageous.     It  is  incredible." 

"  No,  it  was  a  divine  leading.  You  know  I  told  you  I 
couldn't  get  any  answer  to  my  puzzle  all  the  time  I  was 
ji-.wandering  in  them  devil's  alleys  in  the  back  part  of  the 
city.  Neither  could  I  get  an  answer  from  the  socialists 
or  the  churchmen.  But  when  they  took  to  driving  me 
from  every  place  where  I  would  have  stopped  to  work,  if 
I  had  been  let,  and  would  have  lived  and  died  like  the  ten 
thousand  other  men  around  me,  if  I  had  been  let,  then 
sudden  the  answer  came,  '  /  airit  bounJ  ! '  '  His  eyes  were 
kindling  and  he  pushed  back  his  hat  and  faced  Paul  in  the 
earnestness  of  his  speaking.  "  Mebbe  it  won't  strike  you, 
—  I've  noticed  that  a  thought  has  to  come  from  the  inside 
to  knock  a  man  down, — but  what  came  to  me  was  some 
thing  like  a  revelation  of  how  a  man  has  got  to  live  his 
own  life  as  free  as  he  can  from  let  or  hindrance, — just 
himself  and  God.  And  so  you  see  it  was  a  blessing  that 
it  was  taken  out  of  my  power  to  settle  down  as  other  men 
do.  I  was  forced,  by  that  same  boycott,  to  find  out  my 
self.  I  took  to  peddling  my  own  carvings  about  the 
country,  partly  because  I  wanted  to  see  how  other  folks 
lived  in  the  world,  partly  because,  after  Chicago,  it  was 


224  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

heaven  to  get  out  tramping  over  the  fields  with  the  grass 
under  my  feet  and  the  stars  overhead.  So  I've  been 
tramping  now  for  four  years  or  so,  and  seeing  how  things 
go  here  at  Hereward  atweenwhiles,  and  this  is  what  I've 
found  out  ; — a  man  that's  living  his  own  life  and  doing 
the  work  he's  put  to  do,  is  helping  the  world  along,  if  he's 
making  shoe-pegs  or  laws  for  his  country,  but  the  man 
that's  trying  to  do  work  that  don't  belong  to  him,  he's 
clogging  up  the  whole  solar  system,  like  a  loose  pin  that 
gets  atween  the  wheels."  He  finished  his  peroration  with 
a  sudden  wheeling  upon  Paul. 

"Well,  Ben,  what  are  you  looking  at  me  for  ?" 

"  Because  you  are  that  same  man." 

"  The  drag  on  the  solar  system  ?" 

"  The  same.  What  do  you  know  about  the  manufacture 
of  furniture  ?" 

"  Precious  little,  Ben,"  Paul  admitted  with  a  rueful 
laugh. 

"  And  what  do  you  care  for  it  ? " 

Paul  shook  his  head. 

"  And  what  do  you  know  about  the  ways  of  microbes 
and  bacteria,  eh  ?  " 

"  Oh,  come,  Ben,  go  easy  on  a  fellow." 

"  I  won't.  You're  turning  your  back  on  your  duty. 
You're  running  away  from  what  you  can  do  and  ought  to 
do  and  was  born  to  do,  so  as  to  take  up  with  something  that 
you  will  muddle  at  the  best." 

"  Ben,  get  out.     I've  heard  all  that  before." 

"  And  you'll  hear  it  again,"  said  Ben  threateningly. 
"  It  is  all  well  enough  for  them  as  have  no  calling  to  take 
up  with  what  comes  along,  but  for  a  man  as  knows  what 
his  work  is  to  be,  to  go  off  trying  to  make  money ' 

"  Hold  hard,  Ben.  There  isn't  much  show  of  my  fall 
ing  into  that  iniquity,  at  any  rate." 

"  No,  you  ain't  even  a  success  at  the  poor  work  you've 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  22$ 

deserted  to.  You  don't  know  how  to  run  a  fac 
tory." 

"  That's  why  I  want  you  to  come  and  help  me." 

Ben  threw  himself  back.  "  I  told  you  I  was  boycot 
ted." 

"  Boycott  be  hanged.  I'd  like  to  see  anybody  turn 
you  out  of  my  place,"  cried  Paul  with  flashing  eyes.  "  I 
think  I  see  them  doing  it." 

Ben  watched  him  with  a  dawning  idea  in  his  face. 

"What  would  you  do  if  they  were  to  try  it  ?  "  he  asked 
cautiously. 

"  Why,  they  couldn't.     It  isn't  a  supposable  case." 

"  If  I  were  sure  of  that,"  said  Ben,  looking  away  and 
trying  to  keep  the  traitorous  thrill  out  of  his  voice,  "  I 
don't  know  but  I'd  think  of  your  offer.  But  I'd  hate  most 
fearful  to  go  in  and  then  have  to  walk  out  at  their  say- 
so." 

"  I'm  not  thinking  of  beginning  that  sort  of  a  career," 
said  Paul  hotly.  "  If  you  come,  I'll  stand  by  you  till  we 
see  who  is  running  the  thing.  You've  never  known  me 
to  go  back  on  my  word.  Will  you  come  ?" 

"  I'll  come,"  said  Ben  with  a  beautiful  content.  "  I'll 
be  on  hand  Monday.  I'll  go  and  put  my  house  in  order 
so  as  to  be  ready  for  what  comes."  He  rose,  to  hide  the 
gleam  of  excitement  in  his  eyes.  "  Will  you  walk  back 
to  the  village  ?  " 

"  Not  yet.  I'm  restless.  I  think  I  will  take  a  long 
tramp  and  tire  myself  out.  Till  Monday,  then." 

He  turned  off  toward  the  hill,  and  Baily  went  back 
toward  the  town,  communing  with  himself  with  deep 
joy. 

"  I'm  quite  ready  to  attend  to  your  case,  Paul,  my  man, 
and  if  I  don't  tumble  the  Rodman  Works  about  your  ears 
in  pretty  quick  order,  then  my  name  isn't  Ben  Baily." 


XXV. 

PAUL'S  tramp  did  not  bring  him  home  until  after  nine 
that  evening.  When  he  reached  his  rooms  he  found  a 
pencilled  message  from  Prof.  Hamill  : 

"Corneas  soon  as  possible  to  Mr.  Jefferson's.  He  is  seriously  ill, 
and  anxious  to  see  you." 

Paul  answered  the  summons  as  soon  as  he  could, 
though  not  without  some  wonder  as  to  its  import.  What 
Mr.  Jefferson  could  wish  to  see  him  for  was  beyond  his 
guess.  On  the  way  he  met  Prof.  Hamill  himself. 

"Oh,  I  am  so  glad  you  have  come.  I  was  just  starting 
out  to  see  if  I  could  find  you." 

"  I  was  out  of  town.  I  just  received  your  note.  Is  it 
anything  serious  ? " 

"  I  am  afraid  it  is.  There  can  only  be  one  end.  How 
soon  it  may  come  we  can't  say  yet." 

"  Poor  old  man  !  "  said  Rodman  musingly.  "  Though 
I  suppose  he  would  be  the  last  to  think  pity  needed.  I 
knew  he  was  ill,  but  I  did  not  know  it  meant  this." 

"  He  was  more  ill  than  anyone  knew,  I  fancy.  No  one 
was  with  him  to  know.  When  I  first  saw  him  this  after 
noon,  he  was  in  a  feverish  delirium,  and  though  he  seems 
more  rational  now,  he  is  not  quite  himself.  He  keeps 
calling  Joyce  Helen." 

"Helen?" 

"His  daughter's  name,  Miss  Estee  says.  A  daughter 
who  died  nearly  twenty  years  ago." 

"  Ah  !  " 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  22? 

"  The  curious  thing  and  the  strangely  touching  thing  is 
his  eagerness  to  have  us  all  about  him.  He  has  asked 
for  you  again  and  again,— not  for  any  special  purpose,  I 
think,  but  from  a  wish  to  have  you  in  sight.  He  has 
asked  for  nearly  everyone  he  knows  in  the  village,  in  a 
restless,  disconnected  way.  First  for  Dru  and  Joyce  and 
then  for  you,  and  Miss  Estee  and  Edith  and  others.  I 
can't  tell  how  it  affected  me  to  hear  him,  a  man  who  has 
gone  about  among  his  fellows  as  though  hardly  conscious 
of  them,  gathering  them  about  him  now  that  he  has  come 
to  die.  He  does  not  seem  to  want  anything  except  to 
see  them  about, — to  know  that  he  is  not  alone." 

"  Poor  old  man  !  "  said  Rodman  again. 

The  door  was  wide  open  to  the  night,  and  the  Professor 
led  the  way  at  once  upstairs.  From  the  upper  landing  a 
steep  flight  of  steps  went  up  to  the  little  turret-room.  It 
was -the  part  of  the  house  that  spoke  of  the  dying  owner 
most  forcibly,  and  as  Paul  glanced  at  the  worn  steps,  so 
narrow  that  two  could  not  climb  them  together,  it  struck 
him  that  they  were  strangely  symbolical  of  the  path  to 
knowledge  which  the  old  recluse  had  tried  to  climb  with 
out  companionship. 

In  a  low,  old-fashioned  room  they  found  the  worn  fig 
ure  propped  upon  pillows.  The  room  was  full  of  people, 
it  seemed  to  Paul,  though  he  had  distinguished  no  one 
but  Joyce  in  that  first  glance.  The  old  man  on  the  bed 
had  turned  his  eyes  with  a  difficult  eagerness  toward  the 
door  and  lifted  his  hand  slightly  when  he  saw  who  en 
tered. 

"You  staid — so  long,"  he  said  with  an  effort,  as  Paul 
bent  over  him. 

"  I  was  not  at  home.  I  came  as  soon  as  I  heard,"  Paul 
said  gently. 

"What  were  you  doing?"  he  asked  querulously. 

"  I  was  out  in  the  woods." 


228  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY, 

"Alone?" 

"Yes." 

The  old  man  lay  looking  at  him  with  weary  eyes  for  a 
moment,  and  then  he  said  in  the  same  hampered  mono 
tone, 

"  I  am  alone, — alone."  He  closed  his  eyes,  and  almost 
at  once  dropped  weakly  into  a  doze. 

The  shaded  lamp  threw  an  uncertain  light  about  the 
room  and  on  the  waiting  groups  and  brought  out  the 
sharp,  long  features  of  the  sick  man.  Paul  questioned 
the  physician  with  his  eyes,  but  he  only  shook  his  head 
slightly.  Joyce  was  by  an  open  window.  She  had  turned 
her  face  to  the  night,  and  Paul  could  only  see  the  hand 
that  supported  her  cheek  and  the  coil  of  dark  hair  above 
it.  The  thought  of  death, — death  which  was  hovering 
even  now  in  the  room,— hushed  and  softened  but  could 
not  abash  the  tenderness  he  felt  for  her.  It  was  the  best, 
the  truest  part  of  his  life,  this  love, — and  this  man  had 
chosen  to  live  bereft.  A  great  pity  for  him  swept  over 
Paul.  What  had  he  gained  by  his  loveless  toil  through 
the  barren  years  ? 

Edith  Estee,  who  was  sitting  beside  Mrs.  Hamill, 
shivered  with  the  chill  of  the  stillness  and  the  awesome 
waiting.  Bahrdt,  with  a  quickness  of  observation  that 
was  a  new  characteristic,  brought  her  a  wrap,  and  then 
lingered,  leaning  his  arm  on  the  back  of  her  chair  and 
bending  low  to  speak  to  her.  Paul  saw  nothing  to  take 
note  of  until  he  caught  the  look  on  Stephen  Hale's  face. 
It  was  like  a  blow  or  a  curse  ;  it  seemed  to  shiver  the  air. 
The  old  man  on  the  bed  opened  his  eyes  suddenly  with  a 
startled  look  and  murmured  incoherent  words,  but,  seeing 
the  familiar  faces  about,  dropped  off  again  into  fitful  doz 
ing. 

The  stillness  grew  oppressive.  Even  Edith  leaned 
back  heavily  as  though  bound.  Miss  Estee  opposite  sat 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  2  29 

erect  and  still,  with  her  eyes  fixed  on  the  gaunt  face  upon 
which  the  shadow  never  to  be  lifted  was  slowly  gathering. 
Through  it  all  the  clock  ticked  on  sombrely,  and  each 
moment  that  slipped  away  was  freighted. 

Two  men,  neighbors  who  had  been  summoned  by  Prof. 
Hamill  at  Jefferson's  iteration  of  their  names,  grown  rest 
less  under  the  stress  of  emotion  and  enforced  inactivity, 
whispered  together  and  then  rose  softly,  nodding  to 
Hamill,  and  stole  creakingly  out  of  the  room.  The  slight 
stir  awakened  the  old  man  and  he  started  up  nerv 
ously. 

"Where  are  they  going?" 

"  Home,  for  a  little  while,"  Paul  said  gently.  "  They 
will  come  back  when  you  want  them." 

"  No,  they  will  not  come  back,"  he  muttered  restlessly, 
moving  his  head  from  side  to  side.  "  They  all  have 
homes,  all  the  people  in  the  world, — all  but  me.  I  am 
alone,— alone.  You  are  alone,  too,"  he  wandered  on, 
opening  his  eyes  suddenly  upon  Paul.  "You  said  so. 
Alone  in  the  woods.  But  I  am  alone  in  the  world." 

They  could  hardly  tell  whether  he  was  conscious  or  not. 
At  times  he  looked  at  them  with  full  knowledge,  and  then 
he  wandered  off  on  the  theme  of  some  word  that  caught 
'his  attention.  Again  and  again  he  returned  to  the 
thought  of  his  loneliness,  though  sometimes  his  rapid  mut- 
terings  under  his  breath  seemed  to  indicate  that  he 
fancied  himself  with  those  who  must  have  been  only 
memories  for  many  years.  At  one  time  he  started  up 
with  a  sudden  cry. 

"  Helen  !     Where  is  Helen  ? " 

He  had  seemed  at  times  during  the  day  to  connect  the 
name  with  Joyce,  and  she  came  softly  to  the  bedside  and 
put  her  hand  on  his.  He  sank  back,  looking  at  her 
fixedly  but  dreamily. 

"You  are  not  Helen,"  he  murmured.     "Helen  was  lit- 


230  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

tie,  with  soft  arms.  She  put  them  about  my  neck.  She 
was  here  a  while  ago, — a  few  little  years  ago.  Why 
doesn't  she  come  ?  " 

Miss  Estee  had  started  up  at  his  cry  and  stood  listening 
to  his  incoherent  mutterings.  Now  she  bent  over  him  and 
asked  unsteadily, 

"  Shall  I  bring  Helen  back  to  you  ?  " 

He  turned  his  look  toward  her  quickly,  as  though 
startled  by  the  new  voice,  but  there  was  no  comprehen 
sion  in  it. 

"  This  is  not  Helen,  but  it  is  Helen's  child,"  she  went 
on  clearly.  "  It  is  Helen's  own  daughter,  Joyce." 

Joyce  trembled  and  looked  at  her  in  mute  question. 
There  was  a  stir  of  wonder  in  the  room,  but  Miss  Estee 
went  on  quietly,  without  turning  her  head. 

"  Helen  went  away  long  ago.  You  remember,  don't 
you  ?  She  married  Tom  Garner.  But  now  she  has  sent 
her  little  girl  back  to  you.  Don't  you  feel  her  fingers  in 
yours  ?  Helen's  girl." 

He  fixed  his  eyes  frowningly  upon  her  at  the  name  of 
Tom  Garner,  but  took  no  heed  of  Joyce,  who  had  sunk 
upon  her  knees  by  the  bedside.  She  was  trembling  so 
that  she  could  not  stand,  and  Dru  slipped  to  her  side  and 
put  her  arm  around  the  girl's  shoulders.  Hale,  too,  came 
near,  with  a  look  in  his  eyes  that  made  Paul  suddenly 
realize  all  that  the  revelation  meant. 

"  Helen  sends  her  love  to  you  by  Joyce,"  Miss  Estee 
was  saying.  "  Joyce  is  here  beside  you.  Look  at  her. 
She  is  your  own  child." 

"  Helen  is  gone  away,"  he  answered  monotonously. 
And,  after  a  pause,  "  I  am  alone, — alone  !  "  He  turned 
his  head  aside  and  closed  his  eyes  wearily,  and  the  silence 
fell  back  heavily  as  before. 

Ben  Baily,  who  stood  near  Hale,  spoke  some  words  to 
him  in  a  low  voice,  and  the  two  men  went  out  together. 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  2$l 

Rodman  quietly  followed  a  moment  later  and  overtook 
them  before  they  reached  the  gate. 

"  Sure  of  it/'  Ben  Baily  was  saying.  "  Hamon  keeps  a 
kind  of  artistic  junk-shop,  and  sometimes  buys  my  carv 
ings.  This  man  I  tell  you  of  was  there  the  last  time  I 
was  in  the  place,  and  he  was  hot  about  something,  too.  I 
asked  the  boy  who  he  was,  and  he  said  Tom  Garner,  the 
painter.  Better  telegraph  to  him  in  Hamon's  care." 

"  What  for,  Ben  ? "  asked  Paul,  coming  up  behind. 

"  Why,  Hale  thinks  we  ought  not  to  bother  Miss  Mabie 
about  getting  her  father's  address,"  Baily  answered,  turn 
ing  to  him  with  evident  relief.  "  I  was  just  telling  him 
that  I  saw  her  father  in  Chicago  a  few  days  ago.  He 
ought  to  come  down,  I  suppose." 

"  I  hardly  think  it  necessary.     Why  should  he  ?" 

"  I'll  attend  to  notifying  him,  at  any  rate,"  said  Hale,  in 
a  constrained  voice.  "  Glad  you  mentioned  it,  Baily. 
You  are  going  ?  Good  night." 

Baily  had  not  been  going,  but  the  hint  was  too  blunt  a 
one  to  disregard.  He  gave  Paul  an  expressive  glance, 
shrugged  his  shoulders,  and  departed.  They  heard  him 
whistling  down  the  street  after  the  darkness  had  engulfed 
him. 

"  What  are  you  going  to  do,  Steve  ?  "  demanded  Paul, 
turning  to  Hale  with  instant  inquiry  when  they  were 
alone. 

"  My  duty  to  my  client,"  he  answered  shortly. 

"  Confound  your  duty,"  Paul  retorted  hotly.  "  Your 
duty  is  as  much  to  shield  a  defenceless  girl  as  to  help 
hunt  down  a  man  in  hiding.  Let  some  one  else  do  that 
sort  of  thing." 

Hale  had  thrust  his  hands  into  his  pockets,  and  stood 
silent,  but  every  line  in  his  quiet  figure  spoke  unyielding 
determination.  His  very  silence  was  a  rock. 

"  In   the   first  place,  there   is   nothing  but   a  suspicion 


232  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

against  him,"  Paul  said  rapidly,  trying  to  recall  what 
circumstances  there  were  that  would  appeal  to  his  friend's 
mind.  "  To  have  him  arrested  may  do  him  a  wrong 
you  can't  repair.  Think  of  his  friends — 

"  Such  as  Karl  Bahrdt,"  Hale  interrupted,  with  a  sneer 
that  betrayed  the  bitterness  of  his  heart.  It  struck  Paul 
with  surprise  and  revealed  motives  at  work  that  he  had 
not  suspected. 

"  You  are  the  last  man,  Steve,  I  would  have  believed 
influenced  in  such  a  matter  by  personal  feelings,"  he  said 
gravely. 

Hale  changed  his  position  slightly  but  made  no  answer. 

"  Think  of  what  it  will  mean  to  Miss  Mabie " 

"  Do  you  think  she  will  mind  ?  Do  you  suppose  any 
woman  would  let  a  trifle  like  that  affect  her  ?  "  Hale  said 
bitterly.  "  They  are  protected  against  such  pricks.  And 
if  you  appeal  to  me  on  general  grounds  of  compassion, 
you  might  as  well  save  your  breath,"  he  added  with  a 
sudden  fierceness.  "  I  am  not  in  the  mood.  I  have  other 
things  to  think  about — and  I  don't  let  personal  feelings  of 
compassion  influence  my  judgment."  He  flung  away  and 
went  rapidly  down  the  echoing  street,  while  Paul  watched 
him  angrily. 

"Is  our  so  upright  friend  fully  determined  then?" 
asked  Karl  Bahrdt  in  a  guarded  undertone. 

Paul  turned  quickly.  Karl  was  beside  him,  and  the 
women  were  waiting  in  a  group  at  the  steps.  "  The  old 
man  sleeps,"  Bahrdt  added.  "  I  think  it  is  the  last  sleep, 
but  that  was  not  told  them.  What  is  it  our  friend  will 
do  ?  " 

"  Telegraph  to  his  colleagues,  I  suppose,  and  have  Tom 
Garner  arrested.  Can't  you  telegraph  ahead  and  warn 
him  ?  " 

Bahrdt  shrugged  his  shoulders. 

"  To  what  address  ?     If  he  is  there.,  a  telegram  to  his 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  233 

address  would  be  a  clue.  Besides,  he  is  warned.  If  he 
has  come  back,  he  knows  what  he  has  come  to." 

"  Then  what  in  the  name  of  common  sense  possessed 
him  to  do  it  ?  " 

Bahrdt  shrugged  again.  "  The  genius  of  madmen 
knows.  He  always  was  a  madman." 

"  You  could  telegraph  to  some  one  else  and  learn  what 
there  is  to  learn,  couldn't  you  ?  Haven't  you  some  com 
mon  friends  ?  " 

"  Yes,  but  there  would  be  little  gained.  Let  the  Fates 
spin  out  their  thread." 

"  That  is  probably  what  they  will  do  whether  I  agree  to 
it  or  not,"  Paul  said  impatiently.  The  thought  occurred 
to  him  that  Karl  would  not  perhaps  be  so  collected  if 
he  didn't  think  the  Fates  were  spinning  a  thread  that  he 
could  use  for  his  own  purposes.  The  constraint  of  their 
quarrel  was  still  on  them  both  and  they  kept  silence  as 
they  walked  back  to  the  house,  though  Paul  at  least  was 
quivering  with  excitement.  But  he  swiftly  determined 
that  Joyce  should  not  be  allowed  to  learn  the  effect  of  the 
night's  disclosure  until  she  knew  that  he  was  ready  to 
stand  by  her  side. 

Miss  Estee  stood  on  the  doorstep,  holding  Joyce's  hand 
in  her  own.  Her  own  face  was  as  pale  as  the  girl's. 

"I  knew  it  when  you  came,  child,  but  I  thought  I  had 
no  right  to  speak  when  your  father  had  not  wished  you  to 
know.  Do  you  blame  me  ? " 

"  No,"  said  Joyce  with  a  quivering  lip.  "  I  couldn't 
have  made  much  difference  to  him,"  she  added  with  a 
sudden  break. 

"  There,  I  think  it  is  time  for  us  all  to  go  home  and  get 
to  sleep  and  stop  having  our  feelings  harrowed  up,"  said 
Mrs.  Hamill  decidedly.  "  Rob  is  going  to  stay  with  him 
all  night,  and  perhaps  in  the  morning  he  will  understand 
better.  Now  I'm  going  home.  Come,  Joyce." 


234  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

She  gathered  her  wrap  about  her  shoulders  and  went 
down  the  walk  to  the  gate  with  Miss  Estee.  Bahrdt  and 
Edith  followed,  but  Paul,  who  had  lingered  a  moment, 
quietly  drew  Joyce's  hand  though  his  arm  and  led  her 
instead  across  the  garden,  by  the  path  that  ran  between 
the  two  houses.  He  did  not  speak  for  a  moment  though 
he  knew  very  well  what  he  meant  to  say  to  her.  There 
was  a  din  in  his  ears  and  his  feet  seemed  to  find  the  earth 
unstable.  Joyce  had  yielded  to  his  guidance  without  pro 
test,  and  now  she  drew  a  long,  sighing  breath  and  looked 
up  to  the  stars,  measuring  their  quiet  way. 

"  They  go  on  just  the  same,"  she  said  wistfully. 

"  And  isn't  it  well  that  they  do  ?  "  he  said,  swiftly  un 
derstanding  her  thought.  "And  everything  else  goes  on, 
as  well.  There  is  no  such  thing  in  all  the  universe  as  our 
poor  thought  of  death  makes  out.  It  is  all  life, — every 
where  and  always  life,  whatever  form  it  takes.  A  natural 
ist  may  dare  to  say  that,  whatever  else  he  doubts." 

"  But  it  ends  things  so  !  "  she  said  tremulously.  She 
seemed  to  be  struggling  with  a  thought  that  half  terrified 
her.  She  had  forsaken  her  icy  armor, — had  forgotten  it, 
— and  he  felt,  with  a  thrill  of  triumph,  that  in  her  bewil 
derment  she  was  clinging  to  him. 

"Yes,  it  ends  things,"  he  said  gently.  "There  is  the 
veil  of  mystery.  We  can't  go  beyond  it, — and  we 
don't  need  to,  do  we  ?  The  work  this  side  claims  all  our 
courage  and  hope.  You  are  not  afraid  to  see  what  we 
call  death,  are  you  ?  " 

"  No, — I  am  not  afraid." 

"What,  then  ?" 

"  I  am  sorry  that — I  could  not  have  been  anything 
more  to  him.  I  feel  that  I  have  failed  somehow — -in  in 
tent  or  in  capability." 

"You  cannot  blame  yourself  for  not  knowing." 

"  But  I  am  failing  now,"  she  said  with   a  sudden  sur- 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  235 

render,  trembling  on  the  verge  of  tears.  "  I  do  not  feel 
that  I  belong  to  him.  Am  I  different  from  other  people  ? 
It  all  came  over  me  in  there,  and  that  was  what  made  me 
afraid — of  myself.  At  first,  when  Miss  Estee  spoke,  I 
was  just  astonished  ;  I  couldn't  understand.  Then  in 
the  quiet,  when  he  dropped  off  to  sleep,  and  everyone 
was  so  still,  I  tried  to  make  myself  realize  it.  I  thought 
of  how  papa  had  not  wanted  me  to  come,  and  of  what  must 
have  been  back  of  those  years.  I  thought  of  how  mamma 
had  gone  through  these  rooms,  young  and  sweet,  long  ago, 
and  I  thought  how  strange  that  I  had  come  back  to  her 
home  not  knowing  it, — but  all  of  it  was  only  a  wonder 
and  a  surprise.  Knowing  that  he  was  my  own  grand 
father  didn't  give  me  a  different  feeling  toward  him.  It 
ought  to  have  made  me  love  him, — other  people  would,  I 
suppose, — but  my  heart  was  cold.  Was  it  my  fault  ? 
-And  then  I  thought  of  what  you  had  said,  that  I  was  liv 
ing  like  him,  shutting  people  out  of  my  life, — and  that  I 
probably  am  like  him, — cold  and  hard, — and — and — 

"  Yes,  it  is  terrible,"  he  said,  his  lips  breaking  from  a 
smile.  "  I  don't  know  what  can  be  done,  unless — you 
could  love  me  a  little." 

She  started  and  tried  to  draw  away,  turning  reproach 
ful  eyes  upon  him.  Her  thoughts  had  been  so  far  away 
that  his  words  struck  her  with  amaze  and  fear.  But  he 
had  caught  her  hand  as  it  lay  upon  his  arm.  "You  knew 
I  was  going  to  say  it, — long  ago,"  he  urged,  bending  close 
and  trying  to  draw  her  eyes  to  his.  "  It  has  been  my  one 
thought  since  I  first  saw  you,  I  think.  Can't  you  answer 
me  now, — -here  ?  Then,  whatever  comes,  we  will  be  to 
gether.  I  must  know.  Let  me  know  now  !  Oh,  I  am 
pleading  poorly,  but  you  must  understand, — or  I  can 
never  make  you  understand.  It  is  only  the  one  question, 
— can  you  love  me,  Joyce  ?  Oh,  can  you  ?  " 

The  earnestness  in  his  voice  compelled  her  more  than 


238  APl'RENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

knew  better,  with  this  new  wisdom  which  had  corne  to 
him.  He  and  Joyce  had  talked  together  of  all  the  past 
which  they  had  lived  without  each  other,  (it  was  hard  to 
understand  how  it  had  been  possible  !)  and  of  the  future 
which  they  would  live  together,  until  he  felt  that  there 
was  nothing  in  which  they  could  be  apart  again.  His  vis 
ion  of  the  future  was  one  in  which  he  would  go  through 
the  world  with  bold  front  and  courage  unfaltering,  wel 
coming  the  troubles  which  would  give  him  a  chance  to 
shield  her.  For  him,  a  work  to  do  and  a  life  to  make 
worthy  and  a  helpful  hand  for  others.  For  her, — an  op 
portunity  to  love  him.  Yet  he  was  not  an  egotist ! 

So,  as  it  happened,  he  delayed  too  long,  and  Joyce 
learned  all  there  was  to  learn  without  forewarning.  A 
letter  came  to  her  as  any  other  letter  might  have  come, 
but  the  word  it  brought  was  different  from  any  other. 

"  Dear  Joyce :  I  have  been  arrested  on  a  charge  of  stealing  a  Dau- 
bigny  from  Richardson's  gallery.  I  suppose  you  can  bear  to  read  the 
words,  as  I  have  written  them.  If  you  think  that  it  is  what  might  have 
been  expected  of  your  scapegrace  of  a  father,  that  is  only  what  everyone 
else  will  think.  I  am  sorry  for  you,  Joyce.  I  wish  you  might  have  had 
a  father  to  be  proud  of,  instead  of  me.  But  we  all  have  some  burden 
laid  upon  us  by  Fate,  and  I  suppose  this  is  yours.  I  might  wish, — for 
selfish  reasons,  of  course,  after  my  fashion, — that  it  had  been  anything 
else.  T.M." 

She  read  it  with  amazement  that  grew  into  trembling 
indignation.  How  dared  they  accuse  him  of  such  a 
thing  ?  How  dared  they  ?  To  steal  the  Daubigny  !  Why, 
that  was  the  picture  he  had  copied  !  How  he  had  joked 
about  bribing  the  janitor  to  let  him  into  the  closed  gallery 
and  how  gay  he  had  been  over  the  exploit, — until  that 
morning  when  he  checked  her  speaking  of  it.  She  held 
her  breath  as  memory  brought  back  in  a  flash  the  way  he 
had  looked  and  spoken  then,  and  her  hot  indignation 
faded  into  a  sudden  faintness.  She  thrust  back  the  fear 
that  obtruded  upon  her,  denied  it,  cried  out  upon  it 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  239 

She  tried  to  keep  her  mind  upon  the  other  issue.  She 
forced  herself  to  say  how  easy  it  would  be  to  disprove  it, 
to  shame  them  for  daring  to  think  it  possible, — but 
through  it  all  the  pitiful,  evasive  look  he  had  worn  came 
up  before  her,  and  one  by  one  her  defences  slipped  away 
until  she  sank  back  to  question  with  a  wildly  beating 
heart. 

"  Could  it  be  possible  ?     Can  it  be  true  ? " 

Oh,  to  be  able  to  deny  it, — to  sweep  the  very  doubt  out 
of  the  universe  by  the  flooding  in  of  a  loyal  faith  in  him  ! 
But  her  childish  faith  was  gone  and  in  its  wreck  more  than 
her  faith  had  fallen.  The  bewildering  feeling  that  she  had 
never  known  him  came  over  her  as  it  had  in  those  last 
days  together.  The  clinging  affection  that  blinds  judg 
ment  had  been  snapped  by  the  growth  of  their  different 
natures.  He  was  her  father,  but  they  were  far  apart. 
She  -could  see  him  as  others  saw  him  rather  than  as  his 
child, — yet  she  did  not  understand  him.  She  felt  baffled 
and  conscience-smitten. 

"  It  isn't  true.  It  isn't  true,"  she  repeated  to  herself, 
but  doubt  knocked  at  her  heart  until  at  last  she  turned  in 
desperation  upon  the  thought.  "  Suppose  it  is  true. 
What  then  ?  What  then  ?  " 

It  was  the  question  Karl  Bahrdt  had  waited  for,  and  he 
was  at  hand  to  answer  it. 

"  You  do  not  wish  that  I  should  deceive  you,"  he  said 
when  she  had  placed  the  letter  in  his  hands  and  stood 
mutely  watching  his  face  for  an  answer.  "  It  cannot 
make  black  white  to  say  different.  Think  of  how  the 
facts  are  and  then  say.  He  was  bitter  with  the  world, — 
and  in  that  he  had  good  reason.  He  needed  greatly  the 
money, — you  know  that, — and  he  probably  believed  it 
wrong,  being  an  artist,  that  so  rare  a  work  should  be 
buried  in  the  dust  of  a  rich  man's  gallery  which  was  never 
opened.  It  is  easy  to  see •" 


240  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"Oh,  hush,  hush  !  I  will  not  hear  you  say  it.  I  may 
have  said  it  all  to  myself, — but  I  do  not  believe  it,"  she 
added  passionately. 

"  Perhaps  you  can  believe  as  you  wish  to,"  he  said  with 
a  touch  of  scorn.  "Why  are  you  afraid  to  face  the  idea 
that  he  may  have  done  this  ?  Why  do  you  shrink  from 
the  thought  of  it  ?  " 

She  looked  up  in  indignant  surprise.  "  Is  it  not  a  terri 
ble  thing  ? " 

"  From  what  point  of  view  do  you  find  it  terrible  ? "  he 
persisted  mercilessly.  "  Don't  take  refuge  in  the  suitable 
and  expected  attitude  of  mind.  Trace  your  thought  to 
its  root.  Is  it  terror  for  the  welfare  of  his  soul  that 
shakes  you  so?  Perhaps  you  believe  in  a  soul  and  think 
you  know  enough  about  the  laws  that  govern  it  to  dare  to 
speak  of  their  effects.  I  am  very  far  from  being  sure  that 
/do,  yet  I  will  not  quarrel  with  you  for  holding  to  the 
belief  provided  you  hold  to  it  from  conviction  and  not 
from  tradition.  And  if  it  is  from  fear  that  he  may  have 
put  himself  in  peril,  then  I  have  nothing  to  say,  except 
that  you  will  do  him  no  good  by  giving  way  to  your  fears. 
But  if  your  anguish  is  occasioned  by  a  terror  for  yourself, 
it  is  less  worthy."  He  bent  his  glance,  swift  and  keen  and 
piercing,  upon  her,  but  she  was  too  bewildered  to  reply. 

"You  do  not  understand.  I  mean  only  that  I  wish  you 
to  understand  yourself.  Half  our  emotions  are  due  to 
tradition.  We  think  and  feel  as  we  are  expected  to  by 
the  habits  of  our  companions  and  the  custom  of  our  age. 
I  want  you  to  free  yourself  from  that,  and  to  think  and 
feel  for  yourself.  So  you  will  find  reality  and  know  what 
you  are  dealing  with.  Can  you  say  that  no  part  of  your 
horror  at  the  thought  that  your  father  might  have — 

She  lifted  her  hand  imploringly,  and  he  smiled  slightly. 

"  Put !  You  are  childish  to  be  afraid  of  the  words. 
Think,  dear  Miss  Mabie !  Are  you  then  sure  that  it 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  24! 

would  be  so  terrible  to  you  if  the  precious  public  were  out 
of  the  question  ?  " 

"  I  suppose  that  was  a  part  of  my  thought,"  Joyce, 
admitted,  "but — 

"  Then  that  part  you  can  throw  away,"  he  cut  in  keenly, 
"  for  the  precious  public,  as  you  know  well,  does  seldom 
trouble  itself  to  think  clearly.  Then  what  part,  in  your 
own  mind,  did  the  thought  have  that  you  personally 
would  suffer  humiliation  and  shame  because  of  your  con 
nection  with  the  sinner?  Bah,  do  not  look  angry.  I  am 
challenging  you  to  be  honest  with  yourself.  Did  that 
thought  have  some  room  in  your  mind  or  not?" 

He  held  her  eyes  with  his  own  and  she  answered  hum 
bly,  "  I  suppose  it  did." 

"  Then  that  too  can  be  cast  aside,  for  it  is  unbecoming 
that  one  should  be  disquieted  over  what  may  threaten 
one's  self  alone.  See,  then,  your  burden  will  be  quite 
light." 

She  stood  shrinking  before  him,  trying  to  bring  her 
mind  to  his  point  of  view.  She  followed  his  thought,  she 
believed  in  him,  yet 

"What  is  there  left  in  life  ?"  she  asked. 

"  Work,"  he  answered  briefly.  "  The  work  you  know 
of.  The  work  you  have  promised  to  fit  yourself  for." 

The  color  went  out  of  her  face.  This  was  something 
that  she  had  forgotten,  and  there  was  an  assurance  in  his 
calmness  now  that  terrified  her. 

Long,  long  ago,  in  that  dim  past  which  lay  back  of  that 
night  in  the  orchard-path,  she  had  thought  and  talked  of 
something  like  this, — but  the  universe  had  changed  front 
since  then.  She  put  out  her  hand  to  steady  herself  while 
she  searched  his  face  with  appealing  eyes. 

"  What  else  is  there  for  you  to  do, — now  ? "  he  asked 
sternly. 

"  Now  ?"  she  repeated  under  her  breath.     The  edifice  of 


240  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"Oh,  hush,  hush  !  I  will  not  hear  you  say  it.  I  may 
have  said  it  all  to  myself, — but  I  do  not  believe  it,"  she 
added  passionately. 

"  Perhaps  you  can  believe  as  you  wish  to,"  he  said  with 
a  touch  of  scorn.  "Why  are  you  afraid  to  face  the  idea 
that  he  may  have  done  this  ?  Why  do  you  shrink  from 
the  thought  of  it  ?  " 

She  looked  up  in  indignant  surprise.  "  Is  it  not  a  terri 
ble  thing  ? " 

"  From  what  point  of  view  do  you  find  it  terrible  ? "  he 
persisted  mercilessly.  "  Don't  take  refuge  in  the  suitable 
and  expected  attitude  of  mind.  Trace  your  thought  to 
its  root.  Is  it  terror  for  the  welfare  of  his  soul  that 
shakes  you  so?  Perhaps  you  believe  in  a  soul  and  think 
you  know  enough  about  the  laws  that  govern  it  to  dare  to 
speak  of  their  effects.  I  am  very  far  from  being  sure  that 
/do,  yet  I  will  not  quarrel  with  you  for  holding  to  the 
belief  provided  you  hold  to  it  from  conviction  and  not 
from  tradition.  And  if  it  is  from  fear  that  he  may  have 
put  himself  in  peril,  then  I  have  nothing  to  say,  except 
that  you  will  do  him  no  good  by  giving  way  to  your  fears. 
But  if  your  anguish  is  occasioned  by  a  terror  for  yourself, 
it  is  less  worthy."  He  bent  his  glance,  swift  and  keen  and 
piercing,  upon  her,  but  she  was  too  bewildered  to  reply. 

"You  do  not  understand.  I  mean  only  that  I  wish  you 
to  understand  yourself.  Half  our  emotions  are  due  to 
tradition.  We  think  and  feel  as  we  are  expected  to  by 
the  habits  of  our  companions  and  the  custom  of  our  age. 
I  want  you  to  free  yourself  from  that,  and  to  think  and 
feel  for  yourself.  So  you  will  find  reality  and  know  what 
you  are  dealing  with.  Can  you  say  that  no  part  of  your 
horror  at  the  thought  that  your  father  might  have — 

She  lifted  her  hand  imploringly,  and  he  smiled  slightly. 

"  Put !  You  are  childish  to  be  afraid  of  the  words. 
Think,  dear  Miss  Mabie !  Are  you  then  sure  that  it 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  24! 

would  be  so  terrible  to  you  if  the  precious  public  were  out 
of  the  question  ?  " 

"  I  suppose  that  was  a  part  of  my  thought,"  Joyce, 
admitted,  "  but — 

"  Then  that  part  you  can  throw  away,"  he  cut  in  keenly, 
"  for  the  precious  public,  as  you  know  well,  does  seldom 
trouble  itself  to  think  clearly.  Then  what  part,  in  your 
own  mind,  did  the  thought  have  that  you  personally 
would  suffer  humiliation  and  shame  because  of  your  con 
nection  with  the  sinner?  Bah,  do  not  look  angry.  I  am 
challenging  you  to  be  honest  with  yourself.  Did  that 
thought  have  some  room  in  your  mind  or  not?" 

He  held  her  eyes  with  his  own  and  she  answered  hum 
bly,  "  I  suppose  it  did." 

"  Then  that  too  can  be  cast  aside,  for  it  is  unbecoming 
that  one  should  be  disquieted  over  what  may  threaten 
on-e's  self  alone.  See,  then,  your  burden  will  be  quite 
light." 

She  stood  shrinking  before  him,  trying  to  bring  her 
mind  to  his  point  of  view.  She  followed  his  thought,  she 
believed  in  him,  yet 

"What  is  there  left  in  life  ?"  she  asked. 

"Work, "he  answered  briefly.  "The  work  you  know 
of.  The  work  you  have  promised  to  fit  yourself  for." 

The  color  went  out  of  her  face.  This  was  something 
that  she  had  forgotten,  and  there  was  an  assurance  in  his 
calmness  now  that  terrified  her. 

Long,  long  ago,  in  that  dim  past  which  lay  back  of  that 
night  in  the  orchard-path,  she  had  thought  and  talked  of 
something  like  this, — but  the  universe  had  changed  front 
since  then.  She  put  out  her  hand  to  steady  herself  while 
she  searched  his  face  with  appealing  eyes. 

"What  else  is  there  for  you  to  do, — now?"  he  asked 
sternly. 

"  Now  ?"  she  repeated  under  her  breath.     The  edifice  of 


242  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

joyful  dreams  which  the  last  few  days  had  built  seemed  to 
melt  from  her  at  the  word  and  she  stood  face  to  face  with 
the  old  reality.  "  Nothing  else,"  she  said  after  a  moment 
in  the  same  hushed  voice. 

"  Are  you  ready,  then,  at  last  ?  " 

"  I  must  go  down  to  see  papa,"  she  said  rather  faintly. 
"  After  that " 

"  Well  ?  "  he  queried,  waiting. 

"  After  that— I  will  be  ready." 

His  face  cleared.  "  Good,"  he  said,  and  his  voice  was 
almost  gay.  "  I,  too,  shall  go  down.  There  may  be  need 
of  a  lawyer's  counsel.  That  I  will  see  to.  And  it  will  be 
better  for  you  to  work  there,  where  there  is  less  to  inter 
fere.  I  have  many  plans " 

"  Yes,"  she  said,  with  unsteady  lips.  "  I  think — I  must 
go — and  prepare." 

She  went  to  her  room  and  locked  the  door  and  then  let 
all  her  fine  theories  fly  out  at  the  window  while  she  threw 
herself  down  in  a  despairing  passion  of  tears.  If  she  only 
had  never  come  to  Hereward, — or  if  Paul  Rodman  had 
staid  in  the  Tyrolese  mountains  till  this  summer  was  past. 
A  few  months  ago  it  would  not  have  seemed  so  hard  to 
dedicate  her  life  to  that  abstract  ideal  which  Karl  Bahrdt 
found  sufficient.  It  would  have  been  easy  to  decide,  with 
wholeness  of  heart,  for  the  work  that  waited  her  hands. 
Now  it  was  different.  It  would  cost  now,  and  dearly. 
She  had  fancied  herself  ready  to  renounce  the  world,  the 
flesh,  and  all  delusions,  but  if  it  meant  a  renouncing  of 
love  as  well —  Miss  Estee  might  have  told  her  that  one  may 
do  even  that  and  still  keep  the  trick  of  smiling,  and  she 
might  in  time  have  learned  for  herself  that  the  soul  which 
isn't  stronger  than  the  strongest  love  will  find  itself  in 
sorry  straits,  but  when  the  thought  first  confronts  a  young 
girl  it  is  apt  to  take  the  light  out  of  her  sky. 

It  was  as  though  she  had  been  brought  up  to  believe 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  243 

herself  the  daughter  of  a  prince,  and  then,  after  the 
fashion  of  fairy  tales,  had  suddenly  learned  that  her  true 
father  was  the  old  fisherman  and  that  she  must  take  her 
place  in  the  street  with  the  common  people  she  had  known 
only  to  despise,  and  go  about  crying  his  wares.  Yet  even 
then  the  worst  was  not  touched,  for  the  fisherman  might 
be  an  honest  man,  while  now—  The  thought  was  like 
the  shirt  of  Nessus  which  stung  and  contaminated  and 
defiled.  That  she  should  find  herself,  not  on  the  heights 
beyond  the  reach  of  shame,  but  down  on  the  common, 
dusty  highway, — she,  Joyce  Mabie  ! 

Then,  with  a  rush  of  humility,  the  self-rebuke  came. 
Who  was  she  that  she  should  be  exempt  ?  One  of  a  world- 
ful  only.  The  common  lot,  the  common  inheritance,  must 
be  hers.  In  simple  honesty  she  could  not  shirk  the  bur 
den,  be  it  shame,  be  it  sorrow,  be  it  sin,  even.  The  pas 
sionate  conscientiousness  that  had  swayed  her  from 
childhodd  had  taken  a  somberer  hue  since  her  acquaint 
ance  with  Karl  Bahrdt.  His  stern  philosophy  had  from 
the  first  touched  a  responding  chord  in  her  Puritan  soul, 
and  now  because  of  its  sternness  it  was  the  only  help  she 
dared  turn  to.  She  accepted  once  for  all  and  as  a  vital 
truth  the  fact  that  she  was  not  an  on-looker  but  a  sharer 
in  the  world's  burden.  Nevermore  could  she  fold  her 
white  robes  about  her  and  pity  humanity  below  her.  She 
was  in  it  and  of  it  and  could  shake  herself  free  of  no  part 
of  it.  She  had  no  right  to  claim  for  herself  only  that  part 
of  the  common  patrimony  which  might  please  her.  But 
on  this  descent  she  could  not,  must  not,  bear  anyone  else 
with  her.  She  must  go  alone. 

In  the  calm  of  exhaustion  that  came  after  the  tumult  of 
her  thought,  she  fancied  she  had  found  the  strength  of 
peace.  She  felt  herself  already  standing  at  the  end  of 
life  and  looking  calmly  backward  to  a  long-past  struggle 
when  all  that  she  had  held  fast  to  had  crumbled  from  her. 


244  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

There  had  been  an  interview  with  Paul  in  that  long-past 
time,  at  which  she  had  bidden  him  farewell,  and  then  had 
gone  out  to  live  her  whole  long  life  alone.  But  it  was 
years  and  years  ago. 

Dru,  meantime,  hovered  near  the  closed  door  in  deep 
disquiet.  Joyce  had  given  her  the  fatal  letter,  and  her 
first  shocked  surprise  had  been  instantly  swallowed  up  in 
a  tender  desire  to  comfort  her  friend.  What  were  human 
hearts  made  for,  if  not  to  comfort  each  other  ?  Yet  here 
was  a  locked  door  between  them.  That  anyone  should 
decline  comfortings  and  choose  to  fight  out  a  battle  alone 
was  a  dark  mystery  of  human  nature  which  for  her  part 
she  could  only  believe  veiled  a  tragedy. 

"  What  would  you  do  if  I  shut  myself  up  that  way  ?  " 
she  demanded,  after  pouring  out  her  fears  and  troubles  to 
her  husband. 

"  Make  you  open  the  door." 

"  Then  why  don't  we  make  Joyce  open  hers  ?  " 

"Because  we  can't,"  he  answered  placidly. 

"  But  she  ought  not  to  be  allowed  to  shut  herself  away 
from  us  and  be  so  unhuman." 

"  We  can't  help  it.  It  is  her  misfortune,  of  course,  but 
so  it  is  her  misfortune  that  she  hasn't  your  eyes  and  isn't 
like  us  in  many  other  ways,  because  of  course  our  ways 
are  very  superior  ways  or  we  wouldn't  have  them,  and  it 
is  very  sad  to  think  how  many  people  there  are  in  the 
world  that  are  so  unfortunate  as  not  to  have  our  ways  or 
our  ideas  or  to  be  like  us  in  the  least." 

"  I  will  not  be  made  fun  of,  Rob  Hamill.  I  am  your 
own  wife  and  you  ought  to  be  ashamed  to  make  fun  of 
me." 

"  Oh,  I  didn't  mean  to.  I  like  your  kind.  But  there 
are  other  kinds  in  the  world,  and  I  think  we'd  better  just 
let  Joyce  alone." 


XXVII. 

BUT  Paul  Rodman  would  naturally  take  another  view. 
Mrs.  Hamill's  first  word  told  him  everything,  to  her  great 
surprise  and  greater  relief,  and  she  went  up  to  kiss  Joyce 
and  send  her  down  to  him  with  the  feeling  that  a  world  of 
responsibility  was  lifted  from  her  shoulders,  and  that 
everything  would  now  be  made  right.  Rodman  would  do 
what  she  could  not. 

He  stood  waiting  when  Joyce  came  to  him,  and  he  held 
out  his  hands  to  her  with  a  tender  eagerness,  showing  in 
.eyes,  in  gesture,  in  the  nameless  radiation  of  his  inner 
mood,  that  he  stood  just  where  they  had  last  parted.  But 
in  the  meantime  Joyce  had  been  carried  so  far  away  that 
there  was  almost  a  jar  in  their  touch  when  she  let  him 
take  her  hand  for  a  moment  and  then  withdrew  it. 

"What  is  it,  Joyce?  "  he  asked.  His  voice  lingered  on 
the  name  with  a  shy  delight  that  made  her  tremble.  She 
did  not  look  at  him  as  she  answered. 

"  Haven't  you  heard  ?  " 

"  You  mean  about  your  father  ?  Yes,  I  heard  that 
before  you  did,  but  it  had  been  so  completely  put  out  of 
my  head  by — you,  that  I  forgot  it  was  a  new  burden  to 
you  instead  of  an  old  one.  But  I  can  help  you  to  bear  it, 
can't  I  ?  Remember,  we  are  to  share  everything 
now." 

He  held  out  his  arms  but  she  drew  back. 

"  No,"  she  said  quietly,  and  now  she  looked  at  him  fully 
and  sadly.  "We  cannot  share  this  or  anything.  It  has 
changed  everything."  Still  she  was  at  so  great  a  distance 


246  APPRENTICES   TO  DESTINY. 

from  his  mood  that  it  almost  surprised  her  he  should  not 
understand. 

"  It  has  not  changed  me  or  my  love  for  you,"  he  said 
quickly.  "You  did  not  think  that,  Joyce  ?  What  has  it 
changed  ? " 

"  It  has  changed  the  conditions  of  my  life.  It  has 
changed  my  duty."  She  spoke  with  a  weary  iteration  in 
her  voice  as  though  she  were  saying  what  he  should  have 
known.  She  had  been  saying  it  to  herself  for  hours: 
"  It  is  impossible  that  we  should  longer  dream  of — what 
we  dreamed  yesterday." 

"  We  weren't  dreaming  then,  and  we  needn't  dream  now. 
It  is  fact.  There  isn't  anything  else  quite  so  sure  a  fact  ! 
If  you  think  anything  else,  that  is  the  dream,  the  wild, 
foolish  dream,  dear  !  " 

She  stirred  uneasily  and  lifted  her  eyes  to  his.  His 
words  were  waking  her  from  the  torpor  in  which  her  sen 
sibilities  had  been  lulled,  and  with  returning  conscious 
ness  the  pain  returned.  But  one  thought  she  held  fast, 
with  a  tremulous  self-distrust.  She  must  not  let  him  per 
suade  her  against  what  she  had  determined  apart  from 
his  influence.  Because  she  loved  him,  she  must  not.  Be 
cause  she  loved  him  she  must  guard  against  him,  though, 
because  she  loved  him,  it  would  be  hard. 

"I  have  thought  it  all  out,"  she  said,  trying  to  speak 
clearly  though  her  voice  faltered.  "  It  has  changed  my 
life,  and  I  must  accept  the  fact.  What  I  might  have 
wished  has  nothing  to  do  with  it.  I  must  accept  what 
is." 

"  But  what  difference  does  it  make  between  you  and 
me  ?" 

"  It  changes  everything." 

"  Does  it  ?     Does  it  change  our  love  ?  " 

"  It  might,"  she  said  in  a  low  voice. 

He  laughed  in  her  face. 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  247 

"  If  you  believe  that, — you  do  not  know  !  I  am  not 
afraid  ! " 

Then,  because  she  would  not  smile,  he  dropped  his  gay 
air,  and  added  with  tender  seriousness,  "  Perhaps  we  don't 
either  of  us  know  much  about  it  yet, — it  is  new  and  daz 
zling,  and  we  are  children.  But  I  cannot  believe  that  the 
attraction  which  drew  you  and  me  together  from  the  first, 
and  which  makes  everything  you  do  and  say  and  think  as 
much  a  part  of  my  life  as  though  it  were  my  own  act  or 
thought  or  word, — I  don't  believe  that  can  be  broken, 
Joyce,  just  by  unsaying  the  words  you  spoke  the  other 
night.  It  is  something  real,  this  love  of  ours.  I  don't 
believe  you  half  guess  how  real.  I  would  not  hold  you 
bound  by  a  breath,  but  where  can  you  go  to  escape  my 
love  ?  You  would  have  to  go  outside  of  the  universe  !  " 

She  sat  so  still  that  in  spite  of  his  brave  words  a  sudden 
fear  shook  him.  To  be  loved  seems  always  so  great  a 
miracle  to  the  lover  that  he  is  prepared  at  any  time  to 
hear  that  the  natural  law  of  indifference  has  reasserted 
itself. 

"  Isn't  it  so  to  you  ?     Are  you  changed  ?  "  he  asked. 

She  looked  up  quickly,  compelled  by  the  pain  in  his 
voice.  It  dashed  the  resolve  from  her  face,  and  she  an 
swered  faintly, 

"No." 

"  Leaving  out  other  things,  do  you  care  for  me  less  than 
you  did  yesterday?" 

She  clasped  her  fingers  hard  together,  but  after  a  mo 
ment  she  answered  steadily, 

"  No." 

He  drew  a  long  breath  and  the  color  came  back  into, 
his  face,  but  he  came  no  step  nearer. 

"  Then  nothing  else  can  frighten  me,"  he  said  gaily. 
"  Only  you  must  tell  me  what  has  happened.  In  your 
thoughts,  I  mean.  I  know  the  facts  of  the  case,  but  I  do 


248  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

not  know  how  they  have  been  transmuted  in  your  mind  to 
make  you  say  what  you  did.  Tell  me  everything.  You 
said  that  you  loved  me.  You  said  you  would  let  me  share 
all  that  life  might  bring  to  you.  That  is  what  it  meant, 
when  we  said  we  loved  each  other, — that  we  would  bear 
everything  together  and  never  be  alone  in  meeting  what 
may  try  us  or  bless  us.  You  have  not  forgotten  ?  You 
cannot  put  me  out  of  your  life,  Joyce  !  " 

His  patience,  his  tenderness,  his  faith,  thrilled  her  as  no 
passion  could  have  done,  and  when  he  came  toward  her 
with  the  love  in  his  eyes  which  she  knew,  never  more 
clearly,  was  the  essential  sweetness  of  life  for  her,  she 
was  tempted  to  let  his  arms  fold  her  safe  forever  from  the 
need  of  guiding  her  own  way  in  the  world.  But  she  was  a 
child,  and  she  did  not  know  how  strong  this  love  was. 
She  only  knew  its  sweetness,  and  to  her  Puritan  nature, 
sweetness  was  a  snare.  She  drew  away  falteringly. 

"  I  have  no  right  to  be  happy — I  cannot  be  happy — 
while  this  doubt  remains.  My  way  must  lie  apart.  I  saw 
it  all  clearly,  before  you  came.  Uo  you  think  I  would  let 
you  link  your  name  with  one  dishonored  ?  " 

"But  if  I  choose  ?     Has  that  nothing  to  do  with  it  ?" 

"  No,  because  you  would  be  generous,  but  I  will  not 
have  it  at  that  price.  If  ever  this  shame  is  removed  and 
the  truth  comes  to  be  known,  then —  But  until  then,  no  ! 
Besides,  you  do  not  know  all.  I  am  not  free  from  blame  !  " 
She  tried  to  find  the  thoughts  that  had  swayed  her  before 
he  came  to  confuse  her  mind.  What  was  it  Karl  Bahrdt 
had  said  ?  "I  had  no  right  to  think  that  I  might  be  loved 
as  other  girls  are  and  live  a  quiet  and  happy  life,  in  the 
blessed  security  of  a  home,  and  so  forget  that  there  is 
sorrow  in  the  world  which  it  might  have  been  possible  for 
me  to  help  if  I  had  only  kept  my  hands  free  to  do  the 
work  that  belonged  to  me.  So,  long  before  I  knew  you, 
I  had  chosen  for  myself.  I  meant  to  give  what  powers  I 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  249 

had  to  help  the  world  in  some  way,  not  to  live  for  myself. 
That  was  what  I  was  studying  for.  That  was  why  I  tried 
to  keep  myself  free, — because  I  was  afraid  of  the  life  of 
simple  happiness.  I  do  not  say  that  it  is  wrong  for  others 
to  live  such  lives.  But  for  me  there  would  be  wrong  in 
it,  because  I  have  seen  the  sorrow  of  the  world  as  many 
have  not.  It  is  not  a  pleasant  sight.  It  is  something 
that  you  want  to  forget.  I  had  thought  about  it  so  long 
that  I  was  weary  of  it,  and  when  the  chance  came  to  me  to 
put  it  all  behind  me  and  take  up  a  new  life,  so  safe,  so 
sweet,  so  happy,  I  did  not  stop  to  think  that  it  might  not 
belong  to  me.  I  wanted  it  and  I  took  it."  He  lifted  his 
head  impetuously  to  answer  her,  but  she  raised  her  hand 
entreatingly  and  he  let  her  go  on.  "  Let  me  say  it,  be 
cause  it  is  true  and  I  must  at  least  let  you  know  that  it  is 
true, — I  loved  you  and  it  seemed  that  for  your  love  I 
\vpuld  be  ready  to  let  everything  else  go.  That  was  the 
wrong  of  it.  Do  you  not  see  ?  I  should  have  understood. 
It  could  not  be  right  when  I  was  choosing  selfishly  for 
myself,  putting  aside  the  claims  which  would  have  inter 
fered  with  my  own  happiness.  Then  this  comes  now,  to 
show  that  it  must  not  be.  I  would  not  dare  disregard  it, 
even  if  this  in  itself  were  not  reason  enough." 

He  moved  his  hand  so  as  to  hide  his  eyes.  It  required 
all  the  resolution  of  which  he  was  master  to  keep  him  from 
going  over  to  her,  with  those  words  of  confession  on  her 
lips,  and  compelling  her  to  forget  conscience,  scruples, 
everything  but  the  fact  that  they  loved  each  other. 

"That  is  why,"  she  went  on,  in  the  sweetly  plaintive 
undertone  in  which  a  woman  forces  herself  to  speak  in 
words  of  what  is  more  easily  told  in  silence,  "as  I  see 
now,  that  it  would  be  wrong  for  me  to  take  this  happiness 
now.  The  only  thing  I  can  do  is  to  go  away  until  I  have 
a  right  to  it.  That  will  only  be  when  nothing  stands  be 
tween." 


250  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"  Do  you  mean  by  that  when  your  father  is  cleared  ? " 

"That  first." 

"  And  what  else  ?  " 

"  When  I  see  my  way  clear.  I  must  be  sure  there  is  no 
mistake  again." 

The  unfaltering  resolution  in  her  voice,  despite  its 
tremors,  affirmed  the  fact  of  which  he  had  already  caught 
glimpses  now  and  again,  that  Joyce  Mabie  was  a  person 
with  an  independent  existence,  who  could  not,  because 
she  might  happen  to  love  him,  delegate  to  him  the  re 
sponsibility  for  her  actions.  He  had  the  advantage  of  his 
training  as  a  naturalist  in  recognizing  facts  ;  he  knew  that 
ignoring  them  only  brought  one  to  grief  in  dealing  with 
even  smaller  creatures  than  women.  But  he  knew,  as  he 
listened  to  her  tremulous  words,  that  though  he  had 
thought  he  loved  her,  he  was  only  beginning  to  guess  at 
what  love  might  grow  to  be. 

"  But  are  you  the  only  one  to  be  considered  ? "  he  pro 
tested  at  last.  "  If  it  means  something  to  you,  doesn't  it 
mean  something  to  me,  too  ?  Why  do  you  speak  as 
though  you  could  shut  me  out  of  your  thought?" 

"  It  is  different,"  she  repeated. 

It  was  like  battling  with  an  invisible  foe.  He  felt  that 
he  could  overcome  it  by  the  force  of  his  will  if  he  were  to 
throw  his  strength  upon  it,  but  that  was  not  a  victory  he 
would  be  proud  of. 

"  Well,  if  you  can  put  love  aside  for  a  higher  ideal,  you 
need  not  flatter  yourself  that  I  am  going  to  be  content 
with  grovelling  in  the  dust  of  the  commonplace  for  the 
rest  of  my  days  !  "  he  exclaimed  with  whimsical  despera 
tion.  "  I'll  do  something.  I'll  go  to  the  leper  islands,  or 
to  Five  Points,  or  somewhere  !  " 

But  she  looked  so  perplexed  and  wistful  at  this  that  he 
could  bear  it  no  longer,  and  came  and  put  his  arms  around 
her. 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  251 

"  Joyce,  dear,  you  cannot  separate  yourself  from  me. 
It  is  useless  for  you  to  try.  We  love  each  other.  Does 
that  mean  nothing  ?  Do  you  think  so  lightly  of  our  love 
as  to  suppose  that  after  we  have  held  each  other  like  this, 
have  looked  deep  into  each  other's  eyes  as  we  do  now, 
have  kissed  as  I  kiss  you  now,  my  own,  that  we  can  part 
and  forget  and  be  what  we  were  before  ?  That  is  im 
possible.  We  may  part,  but  we  can  never  be  what  we 
were  before  this  love  came  to  us,  any  more  than  we  can 
go  backward  and  be  children  again.  We  must  carry  it  on 
with  us  forever.  If  we  were  married  you  would  not  say 
that  we  must  loose  each  other's  hands  and  go  apart.  You 
would  feel  that  we  must  hold  together  through  anything, 
through  everything.  Is  it  any  the  less  true  because  we 
only  love  ?  That  is  the  true  marriage.  Dear,  you  cannot 
put  me  from  you  !  You  cannot  leave  me,  you  cannot  !  " 
..He  looked  down  into  her  eyes  with  a  tender  triumph,  and 
for  a  moment  he  thought  he  had  won.  Her  eyes  sank 
under  his  and  her  head  drooped  against  his  breast  with  a 
relinquishment  of  struggle  that  made  him  dizzy  with  his 
success. 

"  No,  I  cannot,"  she  said  at  last,  so  faintly  that  he 
hardly  caught  her  words.  "  For  that  reason  I  ask  you  to 
let  me  go." 

"  Joyce  !  " 

"  I  cannot  think,  here.  I  only  know — that  I  love  you. 
But  I  cannot  trust  that  alone.  Let  me  be  free,  Paul." 
It  was  not  often  that  she  spoke  his  name.  He  understood 
the  tenderness  that  prompted  her  to  use  it  now,  and  the 
knowledge  that  she  loved  him,  that  he  had  it  in  his  power 
to  compel  her  to  yield  to  that  love,  that  he  had  only  to 
kiss  away  her  resolution  and  she  would  be  powerless  to 
insist,  flashed  like  fire  through  his  veins.  He  only 
tightened  the  clasp  that  encircled  her  and  looked  down 
into  her  upturned  face  with  compressed  lips  and  an  un- 


2$2  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

yielding,  tyrannous  tenderness  in  his  eyes.  She  met  his 
gaze  without  faltering.  In  her  look  he  read  her  soul.  It 
repeated  her  plea  that  he  would  be  gentle,  even  while 
it  confessed  her  dependence  upon  his  decision.  For  a 
minute  their  looks  battled  in  fateful  silence.  It  was  the 
chance  to  choose  nobly  or  ignobly  which  life  does  not  fail 
to  offer  once  at  least  to  every  soul,  and  Paul  met  it.  He 
put  her  away  from  him  with  something  like  a  groan,  and 
walked  to  the  window  where  he  stood  with  down-bent 
head  for  a  long  minute,  but  when  he  came  back  he  had 
recovered  himself. 

"  Tell  me  what  you  wish,"  he  said  gently.  "  I  will  not 
touch  your  hand  or  try  to  control  your  thought  in  any 
way.  I  do  not  want  you  to  take  my  love  as  a  second  best 
thing  in  your  life.  I  want  to  understand  you  just  as  sin 
cerely  as  you  want  to  explain.  If  you  think  I  have  the 
right  to  share  your  confidence  to  this  extent,  you  may  be 
sure  I  will  not  try  to  warp  your  judgment  from  what  you 
feel  to  be  right." 

She  thanked  him  with  a  look. 

"  I  want  you  to  know  that  you  are  free " 

"Am  I?  The  knowledge  doesn't  seem  to  be  borne  in 
upon  me  very  strongly  yet,  but  that  isn't  your  fault.  For 
give  me.  Go  on." 

"I  must  go  to  my  father, — and  you  must  not  come  with 
me." 

He  smiled,  but  did  not  answer. 

"  Mr.  Bahrdt  is  going  down  with  me, — and  he  will  let 
you  know  about  everything.  I  don't  know  anything  my 
self  yet.  Only  that  I  must  go." 

"  Yes,"  he  said  gently,  seeing  how  the  strain  was  wear 
ing  on  her.  "It  is  right  for  you  to  go,  and  I  will  soon 
know  how  everything  is.  But — you  will  not  wear  your 
self  out,  will  you  ?  You  will  be  a  little  reasonable  be 
tween  times,  won't  you  ?" 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  2$$ 

"I  don't  suppose  there  will  be  much  that  I  can  do,"  she 
said,  with  a  little  break  in  her  voice.  "  I  shall  go  on 
working  at  Mr.  Bahrdt's  book.  There  at  least  I  am  sure 
of  what  I  do." 

"  And  you  will  not  be  unhappy  ?" 

"  Oh,  that  doesn't  matter,"  she  answered,  looking  away. 
"  It  doesnt  matter.  We  think  of  that  too  much,  until 
something  comes  to  make  us  see  how  aside  from  the  real 
questions  of  life  happiness  or  unhappiness  is." 

He  looked  at  her  wistfully,  dreading  the  thought  that 
she  should  go  away  alone  with  that  look  on  her  face. 

"  Will  you  let  me  come  and  see  you  ?"  he  asked  quietly. 
"  I  may  be  in  town,  you  know.  You  will  not  mind  ?  " 

"  No,  no  !  "  she  said  hurriedly,  appealingly.  "  Do  not 
come.  I  mean  it  all.  It  must  be  so.  You  must  believe 
me." 

"  I  do,"  he  said.  "  At  least  I  believe  in  you,  which 
ought  to  be  enough." 

He  saw  that  she  swayed  under  his  words,  and  perhaps 
he  recognized  that  while  she  had  had  the  daring  to  leap 
to  a  point  of  self-sacrifice  which  he  would  not  have  at 
tempted,  she  might  not  have  his  strength  to  maintain  it. 
Then  he  must  help  her. 

"  Good-bye,"  he  said  quite  simply,  holding  out  his  hand 
in  farewell. 

/  She  signed  rather  than  spoke  an  answering  "  Good 
bye."  All  thought  of  concealing  her  pain  had  fled,  and 
as  she  drooped  against  the  table,  with  lashes  low  upon 
her  cheeks  to  hide  her  tears,  there  was  a  confessed  help 
lessness  in  her  pose,  an  invitation  to  cherishing,  that 
would  have  swept  away  a  resolution  less  fixed  than  that 
which  Rodman's  gentleness  masked.  He  looked  at  her 
silently  a  moment  and  then  went  out  so  quietly  that  she 
hardly  knew  when  she  was  first  alone. 

But  on  his  way  to  seek  Karl  Bahrdt,  he  pondered  with 


254  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

some  wonder  on  his  own  self-restraint.  Perhaps  he  felt  a 
momentary  disappointment  at  being  denied  the  sem 
blance  of  autocratic  power  which  every  man  instinctively 
longs  to  possess  over  one  woman,  but  it  was  quickly  fol 
lowed  by  the  recognition  that  their  love  would  be  finer 
if  it  might  possess,  as  she  seemed  to  assume  it  must,  the 
mutual  respect  and  common  freedom  that  a  friendship 
between  men  would  hold. 

"  But  I  don't  believe  most  women  are  of  that  sort,"  he 
concluded,  hardly  knowing  whether  to  be  proud  of  it  or 
not. 

He  hardly  realized  the  difference  it  made  in  his  own 
thought.  If  he  had  happened  to  fall  in  love  with  Edith, 
for  instance,  it  is  safe  to  predicate  that  he  would  have  made 
rather  a  domineering  lover,  and  that  any  pouting  protests 
on  her  pretty  lips  would  have  been  swept  away  with 
kisses  and  soft  laughter  and  never  a  thought  of  the  ethi 
cal  bearing  of  the  question.  With  Joyce,  severe  to  think 
and  to  act,  yet  tender  to  love  and  to  lean,  it  was  differ 
ent.  The  effect  of  her  ascetic  clearness  of  vision  upon 
his  naturally  gentle  and  dispassionate  temperament  was 
to  bring  out  the  sweetness  and  strength  of  both.  They 
helped  each  other  to  realize  their  truest  selves,  and  in 
this  lay  the  warrant  for  their  love.  Perhaps  he  could 
not  have  been  so  generous  if  he  had  not  had  a  certain 
faith  in  the  outcome,  yet  at  the  same  time  it  is  true  that 
he  was  ready,  if  necessary,  to  let  his  heart  go  shipwreck 
rather  than  bring  it  into  port  by  any  false  chart. 

But  he  was  not  quite  equal  to  letting  her  go  away  with 
no  further  word.  He  stood  at  the  station  when  she  came 
down,  and  after  shaking  hands  with  her  he  walked  away 
and  entered  another  coach  unseen.  But  he  left  his  first 
love-letter  in  her  hand.  It  nearly  broke  her  heart  at  the 
time,  though  he  had  not  meant  that. 

"  I  told  you  that  I  didn't  want  you   to  take  my  love  as 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  2$$ 

a  second-best.  I  could  not  use  any  tenderness  of  yours 
to  urge  you  to  a  promise  which  your  mind  would  not  con 
sent  to.  But  there  is  one  word  more  I  must  say.  When 
you  see  it  possible  to  let  my  love  go  with  you  in  the  way 
you  would  choose,  I  shall  be  ready.  Until  then  I  shall 
wait.  If  necessary,  I  shall  wait  all  my  life.  I  have  told 
you  I  love  you.  That  is  something  which  cannot  change 
so  long  as  you  are  you  and  I  am  I.  But,  unless  your  love  is 
as  free,  I  cannot  accept  the  dear  gift.  I  cannot  have  you 
come  by  compulsion, — compulsion  of  my  love,  or  even  of 
your  own  unless  you  consent  to  it.  In  the  meantime,  go 
your  way,  dear.  Try  what  you  wish  to  try,  and  if  you 
find  that  it  completes  your  life,  I  will  be  silent.  But  if 
your  heart  shows  you  at  last  that  you  need  what  support 
there  is  in  the  knowledge  that  I  love  you,  and  that  every 
little  thing  which  comes  to  you  must  be  a  part  of  my  life 
-also,  then  come  to  me,  dear,  as  confidently  as  you  would 
go  to  the  country  in  the  spring  and  demand  as  a  right  its 
gift  of  green  and  peace.  All  my  heart  and  all  my 
thoughts  are  yours,  because  whatever  you  do  or  where- 
ever  you  fare,  I  love  you,  my  Joyce,  forever  and  for 
ever." 


XXVIII. 

PROF.  HAMiLLhad  had  a  guilty  consciousness  of  relief  at 
the  arrangement  which  made  Bahrdt,  instead  of  himself, 
Joyce's  escort.  He  was  fond  of  Joyce,  but  he  was  never 
entirely  at  his  ease  with  any  woman  except  Drusilla,  and 
Joyce  with  the  pale  face  and  haggard  eyes  she  brought 
down  stairs  that  last  day  was  more  dismaying  than  ordi 
narily. 

Yet  she  bore  herself  calmly  enough  to  win  Bahrdt's 
grim  approval.  The  tears  fell  fast  behind  her  thick  veil 
and  lay  in  glittering  mockery  upon  her  clasped  hands,  but 
whether  they  were  for  the  lover  she  was  leaving  or  for 
the  father  to  whom  she  was  going,  she  did  not  confess 
even  to  herself.  And  gradually,  as  the  miles  behind  her 
lengthened,  the  tears  ceased  and  her  mood  grew  quieter. 
She  was  going  back  over  the  same  road  she  had  traveled 
four  months  before,  and  the  sight  of  the  stocks  and  stones 
by  the  wayside  brought  back  something  of  the  temper 
with  which  she  had  viewed  them  before.  Those  old,  high 
thoughts  were  like  the  cooling  touch  of  health  on  a 
fevered  brow.  To  live  so  that  somehow  the  world  would 
be  the  better  for  her  life,— that,  after  all,  was  the  only 
thing  worth  caring  for.  She  had  seen  it  once  and  then 
had  let  the  truth  slip  because  a  vision  of  happiness  had 
come  between.  She  had  tried  to  grasp  the  happiness  and 
had  found  it  the  mask  of  sorrow.  Now  she  found  in  the 
exaltation  of  absolute  self-surrender  the  only  rest.  Per 
haps  her  idea  of  self-sacrifice  was  not  made  wholly  neces 
sary  by  the  circumstances,  but  at  least  there  was  nothing 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

artificial  in  her  thought  of  it.  It  was  all  solemnly  earnest 
to  her  ;  any  other  choice  would  have  seemed  little  better 
than  treason  to  the  diviner  part  of  her  nature.  She  was 
not  old  enough  to  have  had  her  ideals  worn  smooth  and 
not  old  enough  to  know  that  there  may  be  more  than  one 
truth  to  be  considered  at  a  time.  Above  all,  she  had  lived 
too  much  apart  to  have  accepted  the  conventional  ideas 
of  love.  She  loved  Paul  ;  of  course  she  would  always 
love  him.  But  it  was  quite  as  possible  to  love  him  afar  as 
near,  to  always  love  him  though  she  should  never  see  him 
again. 

"  There  need  no  vows  to  bind 
Whom  not  each  other  seek,  but  find," 

she  remembered.  And  then  the  rest  of  the  noble  verses 
came  through  her  mind  with  a  new,  direct  meaning  for 
her. 

"They  give  and  take  no  pledge  or  oath, 

Nature  is  the  bond  of  both, 

And  so  thoroughly  is  known 

Each  other's  counsel  by  his  own, 

They  can  parley  without  meeting  ; 

Need  is  none  of  forms  of  greeting. 

"  Not  with  scarfs  or  perfumed  gloves 
Do  these  celebrate  their  loves, 
Not  by  jewels,  feasts  and  savors, 
Not  by  ribbons  and  by  favors, 
But  by  the  sun-spark  on  the  sea 
And  the  cloud-shadow  on  the  lea, 
The  soothing  lapse  of  morn  to  mirk, 
And  the  cheerful  round  of  work. 
Their  cords  of  love  so  public  are 
They  intertwine  the  farthest  star. 

"  Not  glad,  as  the  low-loving  herd, 
Of  self  in  other  still  preferred, 
But  they  have  heartily  designed 
The  benefit  of  broad  mankind, 
And  they  serve  men  austerely, 
After  their  own  genius,  clearly." 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

She  was  fast  reaching  an  idealistic  attitude  toward  life 
and  love,  which  is,  in  truth,  not  so  unfamiliar  ground  to 
the  thoughts  of  young  girls  as  certain  "  realists  "  would 
seek  to  persuade  us. 

When  they  reached  the  city  the  familiar  rush  of  the 
crowd,  so  jostlingly  near  and  yet  so  impersonal,  came  up 
to  claim  her  as  one  human  atom  more  and  to  sweep  her 
away  in  its  tide.  She  looked  out  at  it  in  a  tremor  of  fear 
for  a  moment.  Would  she  not  lose  here  the  very  memory 
of  those  tranquil  months  gone  by  ?  It  had  been  an  inter 
lude,  she  had  said,— but  she  wanted  to  keep  it  !  No  need 
to  fear.  If  she  had  learned  nothing  else,  she  had  come  to 
know  that  some  things  cannot  be  forgotten. 

Paul,  drawing  back  into  the  crowd  to  escape  notice,  saw 
her  leave  the  train  with  Bahrdt,  and  then,  as  agreed  upon, 
he  went  to  Karl's  room  to  await  advices.  Karl  had  ended 
by  being  very  humane  about  it.  He  approved  of  Joyce's 
resolution  and  would  not  assume  that  it  was  temporary 
only,  but  he  admitted  that  Paul  might  have  a  reasonable 
desire  to  know  how  she  fared  and  that  he  must  act  the 
part  of  a  common  friend.  He  had  undertaken  to  make 
the  way  clear  for  Joyce,  to  arrange  what  must  be  done, 
and  to  report  duly.  Paul  sat  in  his  room,  watch  in  hand, 
trying  to  imagine  what  was  transpiring,  and  the  weary 
hours  stretched  out  to  a  short  eternity  before  Karl  came. 
When  he  did  appear  at  last  his  gaunt  face  looked  hollower 
than  usual.  It  was  the  Karl  Bahrdt  of  the  city,  not  of 
Hereward. 

"  Well  ?  "  demanded  Paul. 

"  Well,  we  found  him,"  Bahrdt  said,  throwing  his  hat  on 
the  dusty  table  and  looking  around  at  the  unused  room 
with  an  air  of  surprise  and  distaste.  "We  found  him,  and 
then  I  took  Miss  Mabie  to  a  house  where  she  can  stay. 
Then  I  went  to  hunt  a  lawyer." 

"  How  did  she  bear  it  ?  " 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  259 

<l  Quietly.  But  he  is  all  broken  up.  It  was  a  surprise 
to  me  to  see  that.  I  had  thought  to  find  him  as  before, 
debonair  and  jaunty,  ready  to  make  light  speeches  and 
persuade  everybody  that  he  did  not  care  a  puff  of  smoke 
for  the  worst  that  fortune  could  do.  But  as  every  man 
has  a  price,  so  I  suppose  every  man  has  a  breaking-point. 
His  seems  to  have  been  the  disgrace  of  a  prison.  It  is 
the  disgrace  and  that  alone  that  has  touched  him.  But  it 
has  taken  all  the  man  out  of  him.  He  is  like  a  child  un 
der  punishment.  He  would  hardly  speak  to  me." 

"  We  must  fix  his  bail — 

"  Ah,  that  he  will  not  have.  It  is  a  part  of  it.  'I  can 
hide  my  face  better  here  than  if  I  am  out  on  bail,'  he  said 
sullenly.  '  For  God's  sake  let  people  forget  me.'  I  told 
you  he  is  like  a  child,  angry  at  the  punishment,  yet  too 
ashamed  to  come  out  of  the  corner." 
-  "  How  about  getting  counsel  for  him  ?  " 

"I  have  engaged  Jordan.  He  is  with  him  now.  I  am 
going  to  see  him  after  the  interview  is  over  and  see  what 
he  thinks  the  chances  are." 

Paul  looked  an  anxious  question  that  he  would  not  put 
into  words.  Karl  understood. 

"  He  asserts  his  innocence." 

"  He  does?"  cried  Paul,  springing  up.  "Then  why 
shouldn't  you  believe  it  ?  " 

Karl  shook  his  head  slightly.  It  might  have  meant  dep 
recation  rather  than  disbelief,  but  Paul  resented  it  an 
grily. 

"  1  have  never  been  able  to  understand  why  you  all 
should  assume  that  his  criminality  was  as  good  as  proven 
because  it  was  asserted.  It  is  only  common  decency  to 
believe  a  man  innocent  until  he  is  found  guilty,  yet  his 
friend,  even  his —  "  Even  his  daughter,"  he  had  been 
about  to  say,  but  he  sheered  away  from  that.  "Even  you 
seem  to  have  believed  the  worst  of  him  without  proof." 


26o  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY, 

Bahrdt  frowned  nervously  and  shook  the  ashes  out  of 
his  pipe  with  an  impatient  knock.  But  all  he  said  was, 

"  I  shall  be  glad  if  I  may  confess  that  I  was  wrong." 

"  When  will  the  case  come  on  ?  " 

"  The  Grand  Jury  meets  on  the  first  Monday  of  the 
month.  Nothing  can  be  done  until  then,  and  that  gives 
us  nearly  three  weeks  to  prepare.  I  will  take  you  around 
and  introduce  you  to  Jordan.  He  is  a  good  man  to  man 
age  it,  I  think.  There  is  nothing  further  I  can  do,  but  of 
course  I  will  come  up  at  any  time  if  you  send  for  me." 

"  You  are  going  back  to  Hereward,  then  ?"  asked  Paul, 
with  an  unintentional  betrayal  of  surprise.  He  had  taken 
it  for  granted  that,  like  himself,  Karl  would  stay  in  town 
till  the  affair  was  ended. 

"  I  suppose  I  might  as  well  go  back  in  a  clay  or  two," 
Karl  answered  with  an  elaborate  affectation  of  indiffer 
ence.  "  This  is  the  first  vacation  I  have  had  for  years, 
and  there  really  is  nothing  to  keep  me  in  town.  Here- 
ward  is  a  pretty  little  place.  It  is  so  long  since  I  have 
been  in  the  country  that  it  has  turned  my  head.  I  think." 

"  Oh,  go,  of  course,"  Paul  said  quickly.  He  was  not 
unwilling  to  favor  the  conceit  of  convenient  blindness, 
though  if  Karl  had  not  been  so  desperately  serious  a  fel 
low  he  might  have  made  some  disingenuous  reference  to 
theories  that  are  reserved  for  the  use  of  one's  friends. 
But  he  had  no  heart  for  trifling.  "Don't  you  think  we'd 
better  go  around  to  Mr.  Jordan's  office  now  ?  "  he  asked, 
looking  at  his  watch. 

"  All  right.  What  an  abominable  place  this  room  is  ! 
I  never  knew  before  it  was  so  barren.  I  suppose  I  didn't 
see  it  when  I  lived  in  it."  It  did  not  occur  to  him  that 
the  change  was  in  him. 

They  went  down  together,  though  it  was  before  the 
hour.  They  were  both  restless  with  waiting. 

"  We  are  most  curiously  made,  are  we  not  ?  "  Karl  said 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  26 1 

as  they  walked  along.  He  had  kept  a  long  silence,  with 
thoughts  evidently  off  on  some  quest.  "  We  go  on  for 
years  and  establish  a  character  and  think  we  know  our 
selves,  and  our  friends,  they  too  think  they  know  us,  and 
then  some  little  new  experience  is  dropped  into  the  mix 
ture  and  there  is  an  explosion,  or  a  new  precipitate  that 
changes  the  character  of  the  whole  thing.  It  may  be 
some  little  thing  that  we  have  come  near  a  thousand 
times.  But  it  is  curious,  too,  how  the  things  that  are 
little  when  we  see  them  in  other  lives  and  dim  when  we 
think  of  humanity  as  a  mass,  become  important  and  dis 
tinct  when  they  make  a  part  of  our  own  experience.  The 
general  rules  don't  apply  then.  We  are  dealing  with  a 
new  man.  Tom  Garner,  for  instance,"  he  added,  as 
though  afraid  Paul  might  make  some  other  inference. 
"  As  I  told  you,  I  could  make  nothing  of  him.  All  the 
child  in  him  has  come  uppermost,  and  the  man  is  sunk  out 
"of  sight." 

They  went  together  to  the  lawyer's  office,  and  Paul,  to 
whom  this  side  of  life  was  an  unexplored  country,  took 
curious  note  of  the  dusty  stairs  up  which  they  climbed, 
and  of  the  bare  and  dusty  room,  lined  with  leather-bound 
books  and  almost  empty  of  everything  else,  into  which 
they  were  shown. 

Mr.  Jordan  came  to  meet  them.  He  was  a  little  man, 
with  white  hair  and  a  round,  benignant  face,  so  benignant 
and  so  childlike  that  Paul  could  hardly  believe  this  was 
the  astute  man  of  law  they  had  come  to  consult.  He 
looked  as  though  he  had  never  happened  to  come  across 
any  example  of  the  criminal  class  himself,  and  was  in 
clined  to  discredit  the  popular  report'  of  their  existence. 
He  shook  hands  with  them  both,  but  looked  at  Paul  some 
what  dubiously  until  Bahrdt  said, 

"  Mr.  Rodman  is  equally  interested  with  myself  in  hav 
ing  our  friend  cleared." 


262  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"Ah,  indeed,  indeed,"  said  the  little  lawyer  beamingly, 
and  he  shook  hands  with  Paul  again. 

"  What   do  you  think  of  the  case  ?"  asked  Karl. 

Mr.  Jordan  probably  heard  the  question,  but  he  did  not 
show  it  in  any  way.  He  turned  and  conducted  them  into 
his  private  office  with  an  air  of  bustling  hospitality  and 
shut  the  door. 

"  Sit  down,  sit  down,"  he  said,  with  urgent  friendliness. 
He  picked  an  "  American  Digest  "  out  of  one  chair  and  half 
a  dozen  volumes  of  "  Reporters  "  out  of  another,  to  make 
room  for  the  visitors,  and  took  himself  a  chair  opposite 
with  an  entirely  disengaged  air.  Paul  wondered  how  long 
it  would  take  to  bring  the  conversation  around,  without 
violence,  to  the  matter  they  were  all  thinking  of,  but  Karl 
came  to  the  rescue. 

"What  do  you  think  about  it  ?  "  he  repeated,  bluntly. 

"Well,  he  tells  a  simple  story, — very  straight,"  Mr. 
Jordan  answered,  yielding  indulgently  to  their  impatience. 
"  He  says  he  got  into  the  gallery  by  bribing  the  janitor 
and  made  a  copy  of  the  picture.  He  sold  this  copy  to 
Hamon,  the  picture-dealer,  and  was  paid  for  it.  There 
were  no  witnesses.  That  is  all  he  knows."  He  smiled 
and  spread  his  hands  as  though  to  say  that  was  all  he 
knew,  too. 

"  But  it  was  the  copy  which  was  found  in  Richardson's 
gallery,  and  the  original  was  gone,"  said  Bahrdt. 

"  Exactly  so,"  said  the  lawyer,  turning  his  bright  little 
eyes  on  Karl,  and  looking  politely  interested  and  amiable. 
"The  story  was  told  in  the  newspapers  at  the  time,  wasn't 
it?" 

"Yes,  and  the  copy  was  attributed  at  once  to  Tom  (lar- 
ner  by  those  who  knew  his  work.  He  left  town  without 
giving  me  or  any  one  else  his  address.  There  was  con 
siderable  talk  about  it,  though  it  was  quiet.  How  did  he 
come  to  be  arrested  ?  " 


APPRENTICES' TO  DESTINY.  263 

"  Why,  a  warrant  had  been  issued,  it  seems,  but  he 
couldn't  be  found  at  the  time.  That  was  some  weeks  ago. 
Then  somehow  information  was  received  that  he  was  here 
and  had  been  seen  at  Hamon's,  and  it  wasn't  hard  to  find 
him.  He  didn't  try  to  conceal  himself.  He  says  he  came 
back  to  have  it  sifted." 

"  That's  very  natural.  That's  what  any  man  would  do," 
Paul  exclaimed.  Karl  was  silent. 

"  Then  it  appears  that  the  original  picture  was  found," 
Mr.  Jordan  added,  conversationally. 

"  Where  ? " 

"  Why,  a  New  York  man  happened  to  hear  the  substi 
tution  story,  which  went  the  rounds  of  the  papers,  and 
recognized  the  picture  described  as  one  he  had  bought 
from  a  New  York  picture-dealer  shortly  before.  This 
man,  called  upon  to  account  for  the  picture,  said  Hamon 
had  sent  it  on  to  him  to  be  disposed  of.  So  it  came  back 
to  Hamon,  and  he  declares  he  thought  it  a  copy.  He  had 
bought  it  of  Tom  Garner  as  a  copy,  and  was  much  sur 
prised  to  hear  that  it  was  the  original." 

"  Tom  Garner  must  be  a  better  artist  than  his  reputa 
tion  promises,  or  else  Hamon  is  willing  to  let  his  reputa 
tion  as  a  connoisseur  go  pretty  cheaply,"  Paul  remarked 
dryly. 

Mr.  Jordan  smiled  appreciatively  and  turned  to  look  at 
him  with  new  interest. 

"  Does  the  New  York  picture-dealer  corroborate  Ham 
on's  story  that  the  picture  was  sold  him  as  a  copy  ?  " 

"A  good  point.  We  must  find  out,"  Jordan  said,  smil 
ing  and  nodding. 

"  Because  if  the  janitor  was  bribed  once  he  might  have 
been  bribed  twice,"  Paul  pursued  eagerly.  "  Why  couldn't 
the  exchange  have  been  made  afterwards  ?  " 

"  That  is  a  point  to  be  considered,"  Mr.  Jordan  agreed 
as  placidly  as  before. 


264  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY, 

"  Then  it  narrows  itself  down  to  a  question  between 
the  three  men,  Mabie,  the  janitor,  and  Hamon  ?  " 

"  Unless  there  are  new  developments,"  Jordan  added, 
and  this  time  he  looked  at  the  floor.  He  seemed  to  ac 
cept  the  suggestions  made  as  though  he  were  grateful  for 
them  and  might  not  have  thought  of  that  way  of  working 
things. 

"  Will  there  be  any  difficulty  in  finding  the  janitor  ?" 

"  I  suppose  not.  We  can  have  the  case  continued  un 
til  we  do." 

"  Do  you  know  this  Hamon,  Bahrdt  ?  "  asked  Rodman. 

"  I  have  been  to  his  place  a  few  times.  I  went  there  to 
find  Tom  Garner  occasionally." 

"  Were  they  on  friendly  terms  ?  " 

"  So  far  as  I  know.  Oh,  Garner  probably  was  in  Ham- 
on's  debt  for  money  advanced  on  unfinished  work.  He 
generally  was." 

"  Do  you  know  that  he  was?"  Paul  asked  sharply. 

"  Yes,"  Karl  answered  with  a  haughty  repelling  of  the 
implied  censure. 

Jordan  listened  with  the  interest  of  a  confirmed  gossip. 

"Yes,  yes  !  Well,  the  first  thing  is  to  see  whether  \ve 
can  find  that  janitor.  I  will  send  out  to  see  if  he  is  still 
there." 

"  Why  not  place  him  and  Hamon  under  arrest  as  well 
as  Garner  ?  " 

Jordan  permitted  himself  to  laugh  outright  at  this. 

"  We  hardly  have  sufficient  evidence  against  them.  We 
can  keep  them  under  surveillance,  however." 

"  When  may  we  expect  to  learn  something  definite  ?  " 

"Well,  really,  it  would  be  hard  to  say  yet,"  Mr.  Jordan 
answered  cautiously. 

"  Shall  we  come  in  to-morrow  ?  "  Paul  asked. 

"  I  shall  be  most  happy  to  see  you,"  Jordan  answered 
as  though  he  could  not  contemplate  the  possibility  of  go- 


APPRENTICES  TO  DLST1NY.  26$ 

ing  on  with  the  case  unless  he  had  their  most  valuable 
and  welcome  assistance. 

And  as  the  two  men  went  down  the  dusty  stairs,  the 
old  lawyer  sat  alone  for  a  few  minutes,  recalling  the  in 
formation  they  had  unconsciously  furnished  him. 

"  That  man  Bahrdt, — newspaper  man,  isn't  he  ? — knows 
Mabie  well  and  believes  him  guilty.  The  other  doesn't 
know  him,  and  hopes  he  isn't.  Hum —  What  is  it  to  him  ? 
Now,  either  Mabie  is  lying,  or  Hamon  has  committed  the 
robbery  and  is  ready  to  commit  perjury.  He  won't  risk 
that  unless  he  thinks  it  can't  be  proved  against  him. 
May  be  difficult.  Mabie  seems  to  have  lost  his  grip, 
though  that  may  be  shame  as  much  as  remorse.  Looks 
ready  for  the  hospital.  Steady  girl,  that  daughter.  Came 
up  at  once.  Ah,  so  did  that  young  man  !  Hum — "  He 
rubbed  his  chin  slowly,  and  then  called  a  clerk  and  gave 
him  some  directions. 

For  tlje  next  week  Rodman  was  occupied  with  people 
and  subjects  that  opened  a  new  world  to  him.  True  to 
his  promise,  he  kept  away  from  Joyce,  though  there  was 
little  that  she  did  without  his  knowledge.  Karl  had  lin 
gered  a  few  days,  and  then,  being  unable  to  do  any  good 
here,  as  he  explained,  he  had  rushed  off,  with  half  an  ex 
cuse,  to  Hereward. 

Mabie's  nervous  strain  had  resulted  in  a  physical  break 
down  that  took  him  out  of  the  jail  in  spite  of  his  declared 
intentions.  He  was  removed  to  the  hospital  and  for  a 
few  days  he  didn't  care  very  much  how  things  went  in  the 
legal  tangle.  But  when  the  fever  left  him  he  yielded 
with  something  of  his  old  gracefulness  to  the  irresponsible 
ease  of  convalescence  and  made  much  of  Joyce's  daily 
visits.  They  two  came  nearer  together  in  those  days 
than  they  had  been  for  a  long  time,  and  re-established 
something  of  the  old  comradery  on  the  foundation  of  a 
better  understanding  of  each  other. 


266  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"  When  people  don't  expect  anything  of  me,  they  aren't 
disappointed  in  me,"  he  said  one  day  with  a  wistful  whim- 
sicalness,  and  Joyce  understood. 

Paul  learned  her  paths,  and  would  lie  in  wait  for  a 
glimpse  of  her  when  she  passed  on  her  early  morning 
visits.  If  she  looked  well  and  composed  he  went  on  his 
way  with  a  cheerful  heart.  Sometimes,  when  her  pale 
face  was  paler  or  sadder  than  usual,  he  found  it  hard  to 
hold  himself  back  when  she  brushed  past  him, — but  so 
long  as  the  conditions  were  unchanged  there  was  nothing 
else  to  be  done.  But  he  grew  rather  haggard  himself  in 
the  process. 

By  way  of  solacing  himself,  he  had  conceived  the  idea 
of  paying  off  the  debts  which  hung  over  Tom  Garner.  It 
was  for  Joyce's  sake,  of  course.  He  couldn't  do  any 
thing  for  her  directly,  so  he  satisfied  his  heart  by  doing 
this.  She  might  be  angry  if  she  knew  about  it,  but  then 
perhaps  she  would  never  know.  Pity  if  a  girl's  innate 
ignorance  of  business  matters  couldn't  be  put  to  some 
good  use  !  Tom  Garner,  he  suspected,  was  not  a  man  to 
be  angry  at  the  liberty,  especially  if  he  only  learned  of  it 
after  accepting  Paul  as  a  son  in  the  law. 

This  project  and  the  details  of  arranging  it  kept  Paul 
occupied  and  saved  him  from  the  desperation  of  his  less 
cheerful  thoughts.  Each  morning  he  climbed  the  stairs 
to  interview  the  little  old  lawyer,  who  received  him  with 
an  unfailing  geniality  in  spite  of  all  his  red-tape  and 
leather-bound  precedents.  Each  time  the  old  man  would 
answer  in  the  same  way,  rubbing  his  chin  with  the  same 
air  of  embarrassed  ingenuousness. 

"  I'm  afraid  there  is  nothing  new  yet,  Mr.  Rodman. 
But  we  are  reasonably  sure  of  coming  out  all  right, — rea 
sonably  sure." 

Paul  would  nod  and  go  out  quietly.  He  was  coming 
to  have  a  horror  of  the  dusty  little  office  where  deferred 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  267 

hopes  and  crushed  ambitions  and  life  tragedies  were  filed 
away  in  pigeon-holes  and  tied  neatly  up  with  red-tape 
and  sorted  out  in  calm,  alphabetical  order.  Then  he 
would  go  down  the  street  to  interview  the  young  attorney 
who  was  gradually  finding  out  how  many  just  and  unjust 
debts  Tom  Garner  had  left  behind  him  when  he  went  into 
seclusion.  They  were  many  and  of  varying  age  and 
amount.  To  meet  them,  Paul  drew  upon  the  rapidly 
dwindling  balance  from  his  uncle's  legacy,  and  was  glad 
that  some  of  the  money  could  be  squandered  in  an  agree 
able  experiment  rather  than  in  the  equally  quixotic  man 
ufacturing  game,  in  which  he  had  not  even  a  sentimental 
interest. 

Sometimes  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  personally  inter 
view  angry  shop-keepers,  whose  demeanor  changed  so 
promptly  at  the  prospect  of  money  that  he  was  nauseated. 
From  such  scenes  he  came  away  sick  at  heart  for  all  this 
money-getting  and  money-valuing  world.  He  saw  its 
signs  everywhere.  The  streets  were  full  of  boys  preco 
ciously  sharp  about  the  turning  of  a  penny.  The  offices 
and  shops  were  full  of  the  same  boys  grown  older,  with 
the  same  sharpness,  the  same  slangy  repartees,  the 
same  absorption  in  the  same  penny-turning  business.  To 
him,  whose  ideal  of  life  was  a  well-equipped  laboratory, 
with  limitless  stores  of  infusoria  and  bacteria,  and  — 
Joyce  to  share  his  enthusiasms  and  triumph  in  his  suc 
cesses,  all  this  rushing,  unrepaying  life  seemed  despair 
ingly  dreary.  In  a  different  mood  he  might  perhaps  have 
seen  something  to  admire  in  the  enterprise  and  skill  of 
the  masters  of  this  different  world.  He  might  have  had  a 
sympathetic  recognition  for  the  ambition  of  the  younger 
men,  dissimilar  as  the  field  of  their  ambition  was.  He 
might  even  have  perceived  that  in  the  din  of  the  markets 
and  the  tumult  of  the  human  torrents  that  surged  to  and 
fro,  there  was  room  for  all  the  cardinal  virtues  and  sev- 


268  APPRENTICES  7V  DESTINY. 

eral  supplemental  ones.  But  he  was  restless  and  ill  at 
ease,  and  his  parting  with  Joyce  lay  so  heavily  on  his 
heart  as  the  days  went  by  that  everything  else  looked 
rather  hopeless.  He  saw  only  the  obvious  poverty  and 
the  degradation  of  such  living.  He  spent  his  days  walk 
ing  through  it  and  moralizing  bitterly,  which  was  a  new 
departure  with  him,  and  his  evenings  he  spent  shut  up  in 
his  room,  smoking  more  cigars  than  he  was  used  to  or 
were  good  for  him,  and  wondering  what  Joyce  was  doing 
and  whether  she  had  ever  really  cared  for  him,  after  all. 

He  had  almost  forgotten  his  connection  with  the  Here- 
ward  Works  when  the  end  of  the  week  brought  him  a 
letter  from  his  foreman,  written  in  pencil  on  a  torn  bill 
head  and  with  more  attention  to  the  message  than  to 
mere  form  of  expression.  Paul  made  out,  however,  that 
the  local  union  at  Hereward  required  the  dismissal  of  the 
new  man,  Ben  Baily,  and  that  the  foreman  respectfully 
urged  the  necessity  of  giving  heed  to  the  demand,  as  the 
union's  suggestions  were  pregnant  with  meaning. 

Paul  read  the  missive  with  a  kindling  eye.  So  Ben  had 
been  right  in  his  anticipations  of  persecution  !  Well, 
they  had  chosen  an  unfortunate  moment  if  they  meant  to 
raise  the  issue.  He  was  not  in  a  conciliatory  mood.  He 
went  to  the  nearest  telegraph  office  and  sent  back  the 
curt  answer, 

"  Baily  shall  stay  if  every  other  man  goes." 
Then,  as  he  went  his  way,  he  thought  to  himself, 
"  Karl  will  look  out  for  his  babes   in  the   mill   and   see 
that  they  don't  make  fools  of  themselves." 

But,  as  it  happened,  Karl  had  other  matters  on  his 
hands  at  that  time. 


XXIX. 

THE  days  which  Bahrdt  spent  restlessly  in  Chicago, 
detained  by  the  offices  of  friendship,  Edith  Estee  spent  in 
taking  thought.  That  was  a  humdrum  occupation  which 
she  had  evaded  very  successfully  during  the  summer,  but 
Bahrdt's  manner  at  parting  had  warned  her  that  it  might 
not  be  possible  to  go  on  much  longer  without  making  up 
arrears.  She  had  always  known,  in  the  background  of 
her  mind,  that  a  time  would  come  when  this  summer 
acquaintance  would  resolve  itself  back  into  the  Great 
'Void,  but  so  must  everything  else  in  life,  and  what  was 
the  use  "of  thinking  about  it  until  one  must  ? 

How  it  had  come  to  be  in  the  first  place  she  hardly 
knew.  There  was  an  exhilarating  novelty  in  the  admira 
tion  of  a  man  so  different  from  those  she  ordinarily  met, 
— and  then  she  did  not  want  to  recognize  Male's  claims 
just  yet,  she  told  herself.  But  the  real  reason  she  did 
not  tell  herself,  because  she  did  not  even  know  it.  Now 
when  it  came  upon  her  that  the  hovering  future  had 
drawn  ominously  near,  she  felt  suddenly  chill  and  forlorn, 
and  she  shut  herself  up  in  her  room  and  denied  herself 
to  Hale  when  he  called. 

That  perhaps  was  imprudent,  for  it  awoke  an  angry 
jealousy  that  had  never  slept  very  profoundly.  It  had 
only  been  by  adroit  management  that  she  had  kept  Ste 
phen  from  open  incivility  during  the  summer,  and  she 
owed  something  to  the  fact  that  his  pride  refused  to 
admit  the  possibility  of  his  being  jealous  of  such  a  rival 
as  Karl  Bahrdt, — a  man  of  unknown  antecedents,  no 


2/0  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

social  position  and  ostracizing  opinions.  He  had  con 
tented  himself  with  showing  that  as  for  himself,  he 
classed  the  socialist  very  near  the  level  of  the  dime- 
museum  freak,  and  he  knew  Edith  well  enough  to  be  sat 
isfied  that  she  was  never  deaf  to  the  opinions  of  the  con 
servative  majority  which  he  voiced. 

But  for  all  that  he  saw  Bahrdt  depart  with  a  sense  of 
relief  he  would  not  have  cared  to  acknowledge.  He  put 
several  matters  of  business  aside  that  afternoon  in  order 
to  call  upon  Edith,  and  he  was  prepared  to  be  particularly 
civil  upon  the  occasion,  to  show  her  what  a  cause  for  grat 
itude  she  had  in  the  fact  that  it  was  not  he  who  went 
away.  To  have  her  decline  to  see  him  was  therefore  a 
blow.  He  could  not  help  connecting  it  in  some  way  with 
Bahrdt's  departure,  and  his  first  chagrin  deepened  into  re 
sentment.  Were  her  moods  dependent  on  that  fellow's 
actions,  and  was  he  to  be  made  the  sport  of  her  moods  ? 
He  vowed  he  would  keep  away  himself  until  she  learned 
he  was  not  to  be  trifled  with. 

How  long  he  might  have  kept  the  vow  under  favoring 
circumstances  must  remain  uncertain.  What  is  certain  is 
that  he  forgot  it  when  with  a  shock  of  surprise  he  saw 
Bahrdt  in  the  streets  again.  It  was  near  the  railway  sta 
tion  they  encountered.  He  watched  his  enemy  go  up 
High  street,  and  then  he  turned  himself  and  went  swiftly 
to  Miss  Estee's. 

Edith  was  alone,  and  she  received  him  with  a  coquettish 
graciousness  that  was  calculated  to  lay  evil  spirits,  but 
unfortunately  her  first  words  spoiled  the  charm. 

"  Goodness,  what  makes  you  look  so  savage  ? "  she 
asked  with  simulated  apprehension. 

He  passed  his  hand  over  his  forehead.  "  Do  I  look 
savage  ? " 

"  Dreadfully  !  As  though  some  victim  had  just  escaped 
you,  and  you  were  on  the  watch  for  another.  Did  the 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  2/1 

last  one  get  off  without  the  life-sentence  you  had  arranged 

for  him  ? " 

"  So  you  think  my  chief  pleasure  in  life  is  to  have  people 
convicted  and  sentenced  ?" 

"Why,  isn't  it?  I'm  sure  you  never  look  happy  here 
unless  you  are  correcting  my  slips  and  making  me  feel 
uncomfortable  and  condemned.  I  thought  that  was  what 
a  lawyer  lived  for." 

That  was  not  an  auspicious  beginning  for  a  wooing,  but 
unfortunately  he  had  not  the  tact  to  make  the  best  of  it. 
She  was  wrong,  therefore  he  must  set  her  right,  and  the 
wooing  must  take  its  chances  afterwards. 

"  The  lawyer's  life  has  a  great  deal  in  it  of  public  be 
neficence.  If  it  were  not  for  the  enforcement  of  the  laws, 
society  would  be  at  the  mercy  of  lawless  men." 

"  Why,  men  make  the  laws,  don't  they  ?  "  she  remarked 
with  flippant  argumentativeness.  "  And  if  they  do,  I 
don't  see  that  the  laws  can  be  so  very  much  better  than 
the  men  who  made  them." 

"  You  are  arguing  for  the  sake  of  opposing  me,  and  not 
because  you  care  a  rush  what  position  you  take,"  he  ex 
claimed  impatiently.  "  The  object  of  law  and  of  a  law 
yer's  work  is  to  protect  the  innocent  as  well  as  to  punish 
the  guilty." 

"  But  doesn't  it  give  you  much  more  pleasure,  person 
ally,  to  punish  the  guilty  than  to  protect  the  innocent  ? 
Honestly,  now  !  " 

"  You  needn't  say  '  Honestly,  now  ! '  as  though  I  might 
be  expected  to  answer  dishonestly  unless  you  adjured  me 
to  speak  the  truth  on  this  particular  occasion,  for  a 
change." 

She  laughed  delightedly. 

"  Is  that  what  '  Honestly,  now  !  '  means  ?  There  is 
some  advantage  in  having  it  interpreted  by  one  who  un 
derstands  so  thoroughly.  I  have  heard  it  said  that  the 


272  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

law  is  a  hedge  from  behind  which  the  protected  thieves 
shoot  down  the  unprotected.  How  do  you  like  that  ?  " 

He  guessed  swiftly  that  she  was  quoting  Bahrdt,  and  a 
wave  of  white  passion  swept  over  his  face. 

"  The  man  who  said  it  seems  to  be  conversant  with  the 
ways  of  thieves,"  he  said. 

"  Well,  doesn't  it  mean  hunting  down  people  in  hiding, 
and  all  that  sort  of  thing  ?  " 

It  was  entirely  a  chance  shot,  but  he  thought  she  meant 
Mabie. 

"  Why  do  you  persist  in  seeing  the  worst  in  everything 
I  say  or  do  ?  "  he  cried,  flinging  down  the  paper-knife  he 
had  been  toying  with  so  suddenly  that  she  started. 
"  WThy  do  you  always  put  me  in  the  wrong  ?  " 

"  I  don't  put  you  there,"  she  said,  but  her  voice  was 
not  so  saucy  as  she  had  meant  it  to  be.  "  I  didn't  sup 
pose  you  would  admit  it  possible  that  anyone  could  put 
you  in  the  wrong.  But  you  haven't  answered  my  question 
yet  as  to  whether  you  enjoyed  punishing  more  than  pro 
tecting." 

"  I  don't  see  why  I  should  be  called  upon  to  answer 
such  a  question.  You  would  probably  believe  what  you 
pleased,  no  matter  what  I  might  say, — and  you  wouldn't 
understand  my  feelings,  anyhow." 

"  That  is  a  reflection  on  my  understanding,  which  is  im 
polite,  and  it  is  also  an  admission  that  you  have  feelings, 
which  is  most  astonishing !  Have  you  just  added  them  to 
your  mental  outfit  ?  And  what  in  the  world  did  you  do 
it  for  ? " 

There  was  a  moment  of  intense  silence. 

"  You  at  least  ought  to  know  that  I  have  some  feelings," 
he  said  significantly. 

Then  she  knew  what  was  coming,  and  for  her  life  she 
could  not  have  uttered  a  word. 

"  Last  April  I  asked  you  to  be  my  wife.     That  was  be- 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  273 

fore  I  left  Hereward.  You  did  not  refuse,  you  only  asked 
me  to  wait " 

"  And  you  promised  to  give  me  the  summer  and  not  to 
press  me  or  even  to  speak  of  it,"  she  interrupted. 

"  I  have  waited.  I  have  waited  and  not  said  a  word 
while  I  have  seen  you —  But  I  will  not  wait  longer." 

"  Will  not  r' 

"  No,  I  will  not.  I  want  you  to  listen  to  me  and  answer 
me." 

"And  I  wish  you  would  not  be  so  bad  tempered  when 
you  come  to  see  me.  Why  can't  you  be  moderately 
agreeable  ?  " 

"  I  suppose  I  might  take  some  lessons  from  your  social 
ist." 

"You  might.     To  advantage." 

As  she  looked  past  him,  with  ther  chin  lifted  and  her 
-eyes  veiled,  he  did  not  know  for  a  moment  whether  he 
loved  or  hated  her  most  fiercely. 

"  There  has  been  enough  of  this,"  he  said,  with  white 
lips.  "  It  must  end  here.  I  am  not  to  be  treated  like  a 
toy, — a  dog.  If  you  want  me  to  go  away,  say  so.  But 
you  must  make  up  your  mind  now.  I  have  had  enough  of 
this  waiting  and  trifling.  I  will  be  recognized.  I  will  not 
be  tolerated." 

There  was  no  room  to  mistake  his  meaning  or  to  put 
it  aside.  It  was  the  native  force  of  the  man  speaking, 
with  little  heed  of  the  forms  of  courtesy,  and  the  woman 
shrank  before  it,  as  before  a  strange  power. 

"  I  am  not  a  man  to  be  any  woman's  puppet.  That  may 
as  well  be  understood.  You  cannot  play  fast  and  loose 
with  me  or  dangle  meat  your  apron  strings  with  that 
German  fanatic  and  other  fools." 

"  I  hate  you  !  Oh,  I  hate  you  !  "  she  cried  passionately, 
and  then  the  nervous  strain  went  off  into  tears  that  choked 
her  voice  and  flooded  her  eyes. 


274  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

Hale  bit  his  lip  with  vexation.  That  a  woman's  tears 
come  easily  and  mean  little  he  considered  a  matter  of 
course,  yet  one  must  maintain  the  semblance  of  respect 
ing  them. 

"  For  Heaven's  sake,  don't  cry,"  he  expostulated. 

She  was  as  angry  at  her  own  tears  as  he  could  be, 
but  they  were  becoming  hysterical  and  she  could  not 
check  them. 

"  I  wish  you  would  go,"  she  gasped. 

He  took  up  his  hat,  but  paused  again  to  look  down  at 
her  as  she  crouched  in  a  big  chair. 

"  I  will  go  now  if  you  wish  it,  but  we  must  come  to  an 
understanding,"  he  said,  and  his  voice  grew  firmer  as  he 
spoke.  "We  cannot  go  on  in  this  way." 

She  did  not  answer. 

"  Shall  I  come  in  this  evening, — or  will  you  write  me  ?  " 

Still  she  was  silent,  her  face  hidden  in  her  handkerchief. 
He  was  not  sure  whether  it  was  obstinacy  or  tears  that 
kept  her  from  speaking.  He  felt  like  shaking  her,  as  one 
might  a  naughty  child,  and  telling  her  to  behave  herself 
and  answer  him  properly.  At  the  same  time  he  was  irri 
tated  that  he  had  been  put  into  so  ungracious  an  aspect 
at  this  time  of  all  others.  He  was  like  some  blundering 
animal,  whose  selfishness  is  too  native  to  be  blameworthy. 
And  Edith's  stings  were  like  the  little  arrows  with  which 
the  bushmen  madden  a  beast  to  frenzy.  She  did  not 
shoot  maliciously.  It  was  her  only  mode  of  defence,  poor 
child,  and  she  shot  because  she  was  terrified.  A  time  will 
probably  come,  if  evolution  keeps  on,  when  the  instincts  of 
both  beasts  and  hunters  will  grow  more  amiable.  In  the 
meantime  it  is  unfortunate  that  they  should  come  in  each 
other's  way. 

Hale  went  to  the  door,  and  then  the  thought  that 
Bahrdt  was  in  town  flashed  over  him  again.  He  turned 
toward  her  once  more. 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  2?$ 

"  I  must  see  you  again.  Will  you  let  me  come  back — 
this  evening  ?" 

She  made  some  sign, — it  might  have  been  of  assent, — 
and  without  further  parley  he  went. 

Edith  flew  up  to  her  room. 

"I  hate  him,  I  hate  him,  I  hate  him,"  she  murmured, 
speaking  aloud  in  her  nervous  passion,  while  the  tears, 
now  unchecked,  crowded  each  other  down  her  cheeks. 
"  He  is  an  abominable  tyrant.  Oh,  I  would  like  to  make 
him  feel, — to  do  something  to  wring  his  heart  if  he  has 
one." 

She  went  to  the  mirror  and  brushed  the  tears  from  her 
face,  with  little  sobs  betweenwhiles.  Her  temples  were 
throbbing. 

"  If  I  ever  have  a  chance,  I  will  make  him  pay  dearly. 
I  was  a  fool  to  cry.  What  makes  me  so  afraid  of  him  ? 
If  I  only  could  have  been  cool  and  cutting  and  horrid ! 
I  wish  he  were  dead  !  I  wish  /  were  dead.  Oh,  I  wish 


She  threw  up  her  hands  despairingly  and  turned  away 
from  the  mirror.  A  letter  addressed  to  her  lay  upon  the 
table,  and  with  it  a  little  white  box.  She  had  never  seen 
the  writing  before,  but  something  made  her  heart  leap  at 
the  sight  of  it,  and  then  sink  back  with  a  deadly  faintness. 
She  leaned  against  the  table  looking  at  it  with  a  fear  in 
her  face  that  had  never  been  there  before.  At  last  she 
took  it  up  although  she  knew  what  it  would  say  as  well  as 
though  it  were  the  fulfillment  of  some  prophetic  rhyme  of 
her  childhood. 

"  I  found  some  German  forget-me-nots  in  town, — the  same  kind 
that  I  gathered  my  hands  full  of  when  I  was  a  child.  I  thought  them 
beautiful  then,  but  I  had  forgotten  to  think  of  flowers  or  other  beautiful 
things  until  I  met  you.  When  I  saw  these  to-day,  they  made  me  think 
of  your  face,  which,  in  truth,  I  never  long  forget.  Oh,  my  loved  one,  it 
is  with  me  always  !  That  is  why  I  came  back, — because  I  cannot  live 
away  from  the  sight  of  your  face.  Will  you  wear  these  forget-me-nots 


276  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

in  your  beautiful  hair  when  I  come  to  you,  to  tell  me  first  of  all  what  I 
shall  entreat  your  lips  to  say  after  ? 

"  KARL  BAHRDT." 

She  tore  the  message  out  first,  then  she  read  the  words 
again  and  again.  She  folded  the  paper  and  put  it  back 
into  its  envelope,  and  then,  though  her  fingers  trembled 
till  she  frfcwned,  she  opened  the  little  box.  A  handful  of 
wee  blue  flowers  looked  up  at  her.  She  bent  her  face  lower 
and  lower  over  them  till  they  almost  touched  her  cheek. 
Then  she  put  them  away  and  sat  down,  throwing  her  arms 
out  upon  the  table  with  an  abandonment  that  would  have 
befitted  some  carven  effigy  of  hopelessness.  Outside  the 
day  went  on  and  the  long  shadows  began  to  reach  out 
toward  the  east,  but  for  her  there  was  nothing  in  all  the 
universe  except  the  one  thought  pressing  upon  her  brain. 
It  was  no  question.  All  was  decided  from  the  beginning 
of  things.  On  the  one  hand  was  something  that  called  to 
her  and  pleaded  with  a  power  that  made  her  ache  with 
the  longing  to  throw  herself  into  the  answer.  On  the 
other  a  future  awaited  her  that  but  to  think  of  made  her 
cold  and  hard  and  bitter.  Yet  this  was  what  she  would 
choose.  Oh,  it  was  all  settled,  and  there  was  to  be  no 
revolt,  but  for  the  little  time  before  the  fate  was  sealed 
one  might  dream  of  what  the  other  lot  could  be,- — dream 
of  long  years  wrapped  in  a  light  that  was  the  light  of 
eternity  shimmering  down  over  the  barrier  and  of  how 
two  might  walk  through  it,  hand  in  hand,  and  never 
know,  because  still  hand  in  hand,  when  the  barrier  was 
passed  and  the  world  that  had  been  was  left  behind. 
Only  through  it  ever  would  be  the  smile  of  eyes  that  sel 
dom  smiled  at  the  rest  of  the  world.  Through  it  all 
would  be  the  strong  clasp  of  an  arm  that  could  hold  all 
the  rest  of  the  world  aloof. 

There  was  a  hand  at  the  door  and  Miss  Estee  came 
in. 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  277 

"  Edith,  are  you  here  ?  Why,  what  is  the  matter, 
child  ?" 

Edith  lifted  her  dazed  face. 

"  Nothing.  I  was  only  thinking,"  she  said,  with  the 
reticence  that  was  characteristic  of  her.  She  rose  heavily, 
pushing  her  hair  back  with  both  hands.  "How  late  it 
is!  " 

Miss  Estee  watched  her  anxiously. 

"  Are  you  sure  nothing  is  the  matter  ?  " 

Edith  waited  a  moment  to  bring  her  voice  down  to  a 
matter  of  fact  tone. 

"  Nothing  tragic.  I  have  two  offers  of  marriage  to 
consider." 

"  My  goodness  !  "  Miss  Estee  exclaimed  breathlessly, 
but  Edith  calmly  hunted  up  a  dressing  sack  to  throw 
over  her  shoulders  and  went  to  the  mirror  to  let  down 
,h-er  tumbled  hair. 

"  Mr.  Hale  asks  to  be  taken  off  the  hooks,"  she  said  in 
the  same  manner.  "  He  didn't  ask  in  the  sweetest  way, 
but  perhaps  that  was  not  to  be  expected.  I  suppose  the 
average  minnow  might  show  some  temper  if  it  were  not 
happily  deprived  of  the  means  of  expressing  it.  Mr. 
Hale  was  rather  in  a  temper.  So  was  I.  That's  what 
made  me  cry,"  she  added,  with  a  touch  of  defiance. 

"  My  dear,  I  didn't  suppose  it  was  any  unduly  tender 
sentiment,"  Miss  Estee  remarked  drily.  "What  did  you 
say  to  Stephen  ?  " 

"  I  told  him  I  wished  he  would  go,  and  he  went." 

"  For  good?  " 

"  A  temporary  alleviation  only.  Oh,  I  suppose  I  shall 
have  to  accept  him.  He  is  coming  this  evening  to  find 
out." 

"And  the  other  ?" 

"  Mr.  Bahrdt." 

"  Why,  child  !  ''  Miss  Estee  murmured.     She  tried  to  get 


2/8  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

a  glimpse  of  the  girl's  face,  but  Edith  had  let  her  hair  down 
and  was  brushing  it  with  methodical  thoroughness. 

"  What  would  you  say  if  I  were  to  marry  him  ?  "  asked 
a  non-committal  voice  behind  this  veil. 

"  Edith,  do  you  mean  it?  For  heaven's  sake,  don't  be 
so  feelingless  and  tantalizing." 

"I'm  not.  I  am  only  considering,  like  the  prudent 
young  modern  I  am.  But  1  want  to  know  how  it  would 
strike  you,  as  a  romanticist.  Have  I  your  blessing  and 
support  if  I  decide  to  marry  Mr.  Bahrdt  ?  " 

"  Of  course  I  will  stand  by  you  whatever  you  do,  and  if 
you  are  determined  upon  it — 

"  But  you  wouldn't  altogether  approve.  Why  not  ? 
Isn't  he  all  that  a  romanticist  could  ask  ?  Isn't  he  pecu 
liarly  fitted  to  carry  a  susceptible  young  girl's  heart  cap 
tive  ?  " 

"  But  you  are  not  a  susceptible  young  person,  exactly." 

"  Quite  true.  I  only  wanted  to  see  how  you  would 
take  it.  If  we  were  only  spirits,  now —  There  wouldn't 
be  any  complications  then, — no  questions  about  what  we 
should  eat  or  wear,  or  what  people  would  think.  It  would 
be  all  easy  and  simple." 

"  Edith,  do  you  mean  that  you  love  him  ?  If  you 
do " 

"  I  was  only  considering,  I  told  you.  I  am  not  a  ro 
manticist  like  you,  auntie  dear.  I  am  a  modern  young 
woman,  and  I  couldn't  marry  a  man  who  is  out  of  my 
set,  who  is  a  fanatic,  and  poor.  How  could  I,  with  my 
nice,  respectable  little  ambitions  and  my  love  of  ease  and 
the  conventional  triumphs  of  a  woman  in  good  society, 
how  could  I  undertake  to  share  the  life  and  work  of  a 
man  who  has  chosen  a  career  that  dooms  him  to  unpopu 
larity  and  poverty  for  all  the  days  of  his  life  ?  No,  it  is 
utterly  and  forever  impossible.  Stephen  Hale  is  the  only 
alternative." 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  2/9 

"  Edith  Estee,  put  down  that  brush  and  sit  down  where 
I  can  see  your  face.  If  you  care  for  this  man, — if  you 
fiat/care  for  him, — you  cannot  marry  Stephen  Hale." 

"  I  can't  marry  him" 

"  Why  should  you  marry  either  ?  " 

"  Who  else  is  there  ?  Stephen  is  certainly  the  most 
eligible  young  man  in  town.  He  is  wealthy,  and  I  have 
just  confessed  that  I  could  not  endure  poverty.  He  is 
correct —  Oh,  most  correct  !  An  Admirable  Crichton  in 
every  way." 

"  But  you  do  not  love  him,  Edith  !  You  do  not,  or  you 
could  not  talk  in  this  way." 

"Well,  suppose  I  don't,"  Edith  said,  but  she  could  not 
raise  her  eyes  to  support  her  valiant  speech.  Child  as 
she  was,  untouched  by  the  knowledge  of  actual  evil,  she 
felt  arraigned  before  the  purity  of  the  gray-haired 
.woman  whose  life  had  been  loyal  to  an  ideal. 

"  But  think  if  you  should  ever  meet  someone  after 
wards —  Oh,  Edith,  why  do  you  talk  as  though  it  must  be 
one  or  the  other  ?  There  is  no  necessity  for  marrying 
either  of  them." 

"  Is  there  much  likelihood  that  I  will  ever  have  a  bet 
ter  chance  ? " 

"  Chance  !  Good  heavens,  child,  don't  use  such  a 
word.  Is  marriage  a  chance  in  life  ?  It  sounds  commer 
cial." 

"  What  will  life  hold  for  me  if  I  don't  ?  I'm  not  a 
genius,  remember.  I'm  just  an  ordinary  girl,  with  the  or 
dinary  ambitions  and  ideals.  I'm  not  good  for  anything 
but  to  marry." 

"  You  should  never  marry  a  man  whom  it  is  possible  to 
refuse,"  Miss  Estee  cried  ardently.  "  That  should  be  the 
test.  I  don't  believe  that  everyone  can  love  to  a  degree 
that  justifies  marriage,  anymore  than  everyone  can  write 
poetry  to  a  degree  that  justifies  publication.  The  tradi- 


280  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

tionsof  the  race  are  to  the  contrary,  I  know.  People  take 
it  for  granted  that  they  are  going  to  fall  in  love  as  a  matter 
of  course,  as  much  so  as  that  they  will,  in  the  course 
of  years,  wear  long  gowns  and  cutaways  instead  of  pin 
afores  and  blouse-waists.  So  they  fancy  the  first  flutter 
of  emotion  proves  that  wings  are  budding,  and  without 
waiting  to  make  sure,  they  rush  off  at  once  to  an  editor 
or  a  minister  and  have  the  thing  recorded.  They  can  burn 
their  poetry  when  they  grow  older  and  learn  that  the  wings 
weren't  wings  after  all  but  only  the  rudimentary  suggestions 
of  undeveloped  organs  which  all  the  race  possesses  but 
which  come  to  power  only  in  the  poets.  But  burning  the 
marriage  certificate  won't  help  matters.  They  have  to 
stand  by  their  mistake  because  they  recorded  it.  And, 
my  dear  Edith,  I  am  not  sure  that  you  have  a  real  genius 
for  loving." 

"  Perhaps  not,  but  I'm  afraid  I  haven't  a  genius  for  liv 
ing  alone,  either.  It  would  mean  earning  my  own  living 
in  the  first  place.  How  could  I  ?  I  don't  know  enough 
to  teach.  I  might  learn  shorthand,  but  I  would  dislike 
exceedingly  to  sit  at  a  desk  nine  hours  of  every  day  and 
have  some  man  dictating  to  me,  instead  of  letting  me  dic 
tate  to  him.  It  would  be  reversing  the  natural  order  of 
things.  There  is  nursing,  and  there  is  clerking,  and 
there  are  various  other  branches  of  industry,  but  who 
could  choose  that  life  ?  It  isn't  only  that  it  means  hard 
work  and  no  fun.  It  means  numbing,  paralyzing,  dead 
ening  work.  Oh,  you  see  I  have  thought  about  it 
There  isn't  very  much  to  me,  you  know,  auntie,  and  if  the 
lightness  and  brightness  and  individualism  that  people 
generally,  and  men  particularly,  like,  were  taken  out  of 
me,  there  would  be  nothing  left  but  a  colorless,  tired-out 
girl  who  would  command  no  attention  or  interest  any 
where.  That  is  what  I  would  be  reduced  to  in  six  months 
of  routine  work  under  orders.  A  girl  has  to  have  ideals 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  28 1 

with  stiffer  back-bones  than  mine  to  make  her  choose 
that." 

"But  you  would  be  free/' 

"  No,  not  even  that.  Because  once  in  that  sort  of  life  I 
would  be  bound  to  it  beyond  escape.  The  men  that  I 
would  meet  would  be  the  sort  that  I  call  '  impossible ' 
now.  And  the  sort  of  a  man  I  would  be  willing  to  marry 
would  call  me  '  impossible  '  then,  and  awaken  the  aston 
ishment  and  commiseration  of  his  friends  if  he  should 
disregard  the  barriers  of  station." 

"  But  why  should  marriage  be  the  only  thing  in  life  to 
look  to  ?  "  persisted  the  old  maid.  Her  own  experience 
came  naturally  before  her  mind. 

"  Oh,  I  don't  know.  It  seems  sort  of  bleak  to  look  for 
ward  to  a  whole  lifetime  alone,  getting  older  and  older 
with  nobody  bound  to  stay  by  you.  Then  somehow  every- 
qjj.6  does  look  forward  to  marriage." 

"  It  is  this  pernicious  trick  of  heredity,"  groaned  Miss 
Estee.  "  Our  mothers  were  all  married  and  their 
mothers  before  them,  and  we  begin  with  the  accumulated 
weight  of  their  ideas.  The  sensible  old  maids  can  never 
hand  their  sense  on  !  " 

Edith  laughed.  "  Well,  life  somehow  seems  to  need  a 
climax  to  make  it  worth  while." 

"  Yes,  and  there  isn't  much  of  anything  but  love  or 
religion  that  will  supply  it  for  the  average  woman,  I  sup 
pose.  We  try  for  love  first,  and  when  we  find  that  a 
broken  reed  we  fall  back  on  religion  as  a. pis  alter." 

"  But  the  married  people  are  happier,  as  a  rule,"  the 
girl  urged. 

"  I'm  not  so  sure,"  Miss  Estee  said  dubiously-  "  If 
they  are,  it  is  because  of  the  finality  of  the  thing,  in  most 
cases.  Their  affairs  are  settled,  and  they  see  that  the 
only  thing  to  be  done  is  to  make  the  best,  not  the  worst, 
of  the  existing  circumstances.  But  they  might  have  done 


282  APPRENTICES  7V  DESTINY. 

that  before  more  easily,  and  found  the  same  peace  by  a 
less  hazardous  route." 

Edith  sat  silent,  but  the  fair  face  shaded  by  her  falling 
hair  was  wilfully  set.  It  rushed  over  Miss  Estee  that  she 
was  doing  what  she  had  been  doing  all  her  life, — talking 
abstractions  and  failing  to  get  in  touch  with  the  girl's 
mood.  A  remorseful  fear  and  pity  made  her  hold  out  her 
arms. 

"  My  dear,  my  dear,  there  is  only  one  thing  to  do.  We 
must  be  true,  though  the  heavens  fall  !  " 

"That  sounds  well,"  said  Edith,  with  a  little  pucker, 
"  but  when  the  heavens  begin  to  show  signs  of  falling, 
even  in  just  one  little  corner,  you  are  scared.  At  least  I 
am.  Somehow  I  have  more  practical  faith  in  the  earth  I 
know  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  universe.  Of  course 
one  wants  to  be  true,  but  if  it  really  comes  to  a  question 
of  cracking  the  truth  a  little  or  cracking  the  sky, —  Good 
ness,  I  want  something  over  my  head  !  " 

"You  are  a  little  heathen,"  groaned  her  aunt. 

"  No,  I  am  a  realist.  That's  pretty  much  the  same, 
though,  in  your  eyes,  isn't  it  ? " 

"  If  you  can  laugh  about  it,  I  feel  relieved.  You 
weren't  in  earnest,  were  you  ?  Because  what  could  be 
more  dreadful,  Edith,  more  unspeakably  dreadful,  than  to 
be  married  to  a  man  you  didn't  love  ?  Surely  you 
couldn't  think  of  it." 

"  I  am  going  to  be  married  to  Mr.  Hale." 

"  Then  you  do  love  him  ?  Confess  !  Is  it  just  shyness 
that  makes  you  pretend  not  to  care  ?  " 

"  Oh,  I  daresay  I  love  him  quite  enough.  His  finger 
nails  are  always  in  perfect  order  and  his  cuffs  and  collars 
immaculate.  I  couldn't  bear  him  if  they  weren't.  As  it 
is,  I  don't  know  anyone  else  I  would  marry.  Will  that 
satisfy  you  ?  " 

"  No,  that  won't  satisfy  me,"  she  said  gravely. 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  283 

"Oh,  well,  then,  I'll  say  I  love  him,"  Edith  exclaimed 
impatiently.  "  I  suppose  I  might  as  well  begin  to  practice 
saying  it." 

"  When  is  he  coming  ? " 

"  This  evening.  Mr.  Bahrdt,  also  will  call  this  evening, 
I  suppose.  Pleasant,  if  they  come  together." 

"  I'm  sorry  for  him,  Edith." 

"Are  you  ?  Oh,  he'll  get  over  it.  He  will  know  better 
than  to  break  his  heart  over  so  slight  a  thing  as  I." 

Miss  Estee  put  her  hands  on  the  tall  girl's  shoulders 
and  looked  anxiously  into  her  eyes. 

"  Edith,  my  little  girl,  I  wish  I  were  sure  of  you." 

"  I  am  doing  exactly  what  I  want  to,  auntie  dear,  so  it 
is  all  right.  And  if  I  am  wrecking  my  life, — well,  it  is  my 
own  funeral.  At  least  the  hearse  will  have  silver  trap 
pings.  There,  don't  look  at  me  like  that.  I  don't  know 
what  I  may  say.  Go  away  now,  like  a  good  little  dear, 
because  I  must  dress  before  the  Philistines  are  upon  me." 

She  pushed  her  aunt  out  of  the  room  and  locked  the 
door  with  a  snap.  Then  she  bathed  her  face,  and,  with  a 
mocking  smile  at  herself,  she  arrayed  herself  in  a  trailing 
white  gown  that  fell  about  her  like  the  robes  of  a  sacrifi 
cial  victim. 

"  That  is  what  I  would  wear  if  I  were  going  to  die  this 
hour,"  she  thought  to  herself  as  she  looked  in  the  glass 
to  arrange  the  folds  of  filmy  lace  that  crossed  at  her 
throat.  "  It  suits  Iphigenia.  What  a  hollow  mockery  I 
am  !  But  I  like  these  things."  She  thoughtfully  adjusted 
the  trained  skirt  which  fell  about  her  in  gracious  lines. 

"  I  never  would  have  a  gown  like  this  if  I  married  him. 
And  I'd  rather  be  Iphigenia  with  her  robes  than  a  dairy 
maid  in  homespun,  that's  the  truth.  It  is  one  or  the 
other,  and  I  must  choose  the  thing  that  is  real  to  me. 
There  isn't  any  question  of  unreality  about  this  gown.  It 
is  perfect, — for  a  victim.  It  only  needs — "  She  went  to 


284  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

the  table  and  took  up  a  few  of  Karl  Bahrdt's  flowers  and 
tucked  them  into  the  braids  that  drooped  goldenly  low  at 
her  neck.  "  That  is  complete —  How  perfectly  he  knew  !" 

She  did  not  take  them  out.  She  stood  and  looked  at 
their  reflection  a  moment  in  the  glass. 

"  It  would  be  midsummer  madness,"  she  said  to  herself. 
"  I  must  be  sensible,  and  then  at  least  I  will  know  what  I 
may  expect." 

Presently  she  heard  the  door-bell  ring.  It  was  only  a 
far-away  tinkle,  but  it  made  her  fall  a-trembling  as  though 
it  had  been  the  trumpet  of  a  judgment  day.  She  put  her 
hands  over  her  heart,  trying  to  still  its  wild  beating  by 
the  pressure  of  her  fingers,  while  she  waited  for  the  slow 
steps  of  the  maid.  It  was  either  too  late  or  too  early  for 
an  orthodox  caller.  It  could  only  be  Karl  Bahrdt.  She 
drew  her  breath  in  quick  gasps  and  for  a  moment  the 
thought  of  fleeing  from  the  house  before  she  was  sum 
moned  flashed  over  her.  Then  she  stamped  her  foot  in 
impatience  with  her  own  tremors  and  went  to  the  window, 
leaning  out  into  the  open  air  till  the  maid  came. 

It  was  Hale  who  awaited  her. 

The  surprise  was  a  nervous  stimulant.  She  recovered 
her  self-poise  in  a  moment. 

"  Very  well,  Mary.  Oh,  Mary,  if  Mr.  Bahrdt  should 
come  before  Mr.  Hale  goes,  you  may  show  him  into  the 
library.  Tell  him  I  am  engaged  and  ask  him  to  wait. 
See  that  the  room  is  lit,  and,  Mary,  be  sure  to  close  the 
door  into  the  hall." 

She  turned  to  the  glass  for  a  last  look  before  she  went 
to  meet  him.  The  forget-me-nots  were  still  in  her  hair. 
She  touched  them  lightly  and  lingeringly,  and,  with  a 
curious  smile,  she  left  them  there. 

Then  she  went  down. 


XXX. 

HALE  had  passed  two  uncomfortable  hours  in  the  meam 
time,  and  had  come  back  after  all  sooner  than  he  intended. 
He  was  doubtful  as  to  the  nature  of  his  reception,  and  the 
doubt  irritated  him.  He  stood  waiting  in  the  room  where 
he  had  left  her,  and  as  the  minutes  lengthened  he  frowned 
nervously.  When  he  heard  her  step  on  the  stair  at  last 
he  threw  up  his  head  and  unconsciously  squared  himself 
as  for  a  conflict.  A  wonder  flashed  into  his  mind  why  he, 
whose  natural  and  divine  right  it  was  to  command,  should 
treTforced  by  the  artificial  standards  of  society  into  the 
false  position  of  a  suppliant.  He  always  had  commanded. 
He  expected  to  command  when  she  was  his  wife.  Why 
should  he  lend  credit  to  the  fiction  of  woman's  freedom  by 
suing  instead  of  commanding  at  this  juncture  ? 

Then  Edith  appeared  at  the  door.  She  gave  him  a  nod 
and  a  brilliant  smile  that  came  from  the  lips  only,  and 
swept  across  the  room  to  a  low  chair.  He  followed  her, 
with  a  sudden  revulsion  of  feeling.  As  she  had  instinc 
tively  known,  the  elegance  of  her  dress  inspired  him  with 
a  vague  awe  which  would  serve  as  a  substitute  for  the 
courtesy  that  springs  from  reverence.  His  senses  suc 
cumbed  to  the  glory  of  her  laces  and  jewels,  and  whereas 
he  had  a  moment  before  thought  with  favor  of  the  olden 
fashion  of  undisguised  force,  he  felt  now,  with  a  strange 
thrill  in  all  his  pulses,  that  he  could  throw  himself  at  her 
feet  and  kiss  the  hem  of  her  dress.  He  thought  it  was 
love  that  moved  him. 

"  Well  ?  "  she  said  mockingly. 


286  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"  I  told  you  I  would  come,"  he  answered.  He  stood 
before  her,  looking  down  at  her  through  a  haze. 

"  Then  I  suppose  we  can  consider  it  settled  without  any 
nonsense,"  she  said  with  nervous  quickness.  "  See,"  and 
she  held  out  a  tag  of  the  lace  she  wore,  "  I  have  decked 
myself  out  in  holiday  attire  to  do  honor  to  the  great  oc 
casion." 

"  Did  you  wear  that  for  me  ?  " 

"  And  for  myself.     Do  you  like  it  ?  " 

"  Yes.  But — Edith, — is  it  true  ?  Will  you  be  my 
wife  ?  " 

"  Yes." 

She  looked  straight  in  his  face,  but  there  was  no  invita 
tion  in  her  eyes,  no  softness  in  her  clear  voice.  If  he  had 
offered  to  kiss  her,  she  would  have  been  tempted  to 
strike  him.  But  he  did  not.  Perhaps  he  recognized  her 
mood.  He  pulled  a  chair  near  her  and  sat  down,  smiling 
but  still  looking  a  little  doubtful  and  watching  her  with 
an  eye  that  followed  every  motion. 

"  Then  it  is  to  be  a  happy  ending  to  our  quarrel.  Did  I 
seem  disagreeable  this  afternoon  ?" 

"  No  seeming  about  it.     You  were." 

He  laughed. 

"What  made  you  be  so  unpleasant,  then  ?  You  said 
you  hated  me." 

"  And  I  meant  it." 

"  Do  you  hate  me  now  ?  " 

She  didn't  answer,  and  he  leaned  forward  and  clasped 
her  fingers  in  his.  It  startled  them  both,  and  he  drew 
back  confusedly. 

"  You  don't  suppose  I  have  changed  my  mind  so  soon, 
or  that,  if  I  have,  I  would  confess  it,  do  you  ?"  she  asked, 
making  an  effort  to  speak  gaily,  and  finding  it  heavy 
work. 

"  I  expect  you  to  confess  more  than  that.     Why  have 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  287 

you  made  me  wait  so  long  ?     Why  didn't  you  let  me  know 
in  the  spring?  " 

"  The  waiting  has  not  worn  upon  you  very  seriously," 
she  said  saucily. 

"  You  don't  know,"  he  answered.  He  had  it  in  mind 
to  confess  something  of  what  he  had  suffered  from 
Bahrdt's  appropriation  of  her  time,  but  he  checked  the 
words  on  his  lips.  He  could  not  speak  of  it  yet,— and  it 
would  not  be  dignified  to  confess  that  he  had  been  uneasy. 
He  might  be  content  now  at  least.  He  told  himself  he 
was  content, — but,  as  he  looked  at  her  a  sense  of  disap 
pointment  began  to  rise  dumbly  in  his  heart.  He  did 
not  understand  it,  and  as  he  still  looked  at  her  he  forgot 
it  to  wonder  over  her  beauty  and  to  remember  that  it  was 
his  own.  He  leaned  toward  her  with  a  new  light  in  his 
eyes. 

•  "You  are  very  beautiful.  When  you  are  my  wife  I  shall 
feel  like  hiding  you  away  to  keep  your  beauty  for  my  own 
eyes  alone.  No  one  else  will  have  a  right  to  come  and  go 
and  talk  to  you  and  carry  away  the  memory  of  your  face. 
You  are  mine,  mine  !  " 

"A  pleasant  prospect  for  me,  shut  up  like  a  prisoner  !  " 
she  cried,  looking  a  little  startled  at  his  manner,  in  spite 
of  her  effort  to  meet  him  lightly.  This  was  a  new  tone 
for  him  to  take  and  it  frightened  her.  She  knew  what  to 
expect  of  Stephen  the  censor,  but  if  Stephen  took  the 
language  of  love  on  his  lips  she  would  be  facing  the 
unknown.  But  he  went  on,  in  the  same  abstracted 
way. 

"  Your  happiness  will  be  to  be  what  I  wish,  will  it  not  ? 
You  have  thought  me  sometimes  harsh  and  dictatorial. 
It  was  because  I  wanted  to  make  you  what  I  most  admire. 
For  that  reason  I  have  tried  to  train  you, — because  I 
loved  you  and  meant  some  day  to  make  you  my  wife. 
Long  ago  I  settled  it  all  in  my  own  mind,  and  I  have  been 


288  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

waiting  years  for  this  time  to  come.  Think  what  it  means 
to  me  now  !  " 

She  rose  abruptly  and  crossed  the  room, — anything  to 
escape  from  his  words,  to  break  this  spell.  It  seemed  to 
her  that  she  must  cry  out,  sob,  do  something  dreadful,  if 
he  did  not  stop  talking  in  that  strain.  She  could  not  meet 
his  eyes. 

"  What  is  it  now  ?  Did  I  say  anything  disagreeable  ?  " 
he  asked  with  a  quick  change  at  her  manner.  She  recov 
ered  herself.  It  was  the  old  Stephen  back. 

"  No,  but  let's  talk  about  something  else.  I  don't  like 
to  have  you  talk  about  me  !  " 

He  was  silent  a  moment  before  he  said, 

"  Very  well,  let  us  decide  about  the  wedding-day,  then." 

"Oh,  goodness,  I  don't  want  to  settle  everything  all  at 
once." 

"  This  isn't  everything." 

"Oh,  well,  there's  time  enough.  Don't  talk  about  that. 
Tell  me  about —  Oh,  about  your  law  cases  !-" 

He  smiled  in  spite  of  himself.  "  If  that  is  to  be  our 
only  common  ground,  I'm  afraid  it  will  be  difficult  for  us 
to  converse  very  enthusiastically.  No,  you  can't  put  me 
off  in  that  way.  I  want  to  talk  particularly  about  our 
wedding-day.  There  is  no  reason  why  we  shouldn't  ar 
range  it  now.  And  I  must  speak  of  it  now  because  I 
would  like  it  to  be  very  soon." 

"  I  won't  be  hurried,"  she  protested,  and  she  looked  at 
him  with  dilating  eyes. 

"  I  am  not  hurrying  you.  I  only  want  you  to  under 
stand  the  situation,  and  that  you  can't  do  unless  you  will 
let  me  speak  about  it.  If  you  will  not  be  so  excitable,  I 
can  explain.  There  are  some  reasons  why  I  would  like  to 
have  it  set  for  some  day  next  week." 

"Next  week  ?"  she  cried,  starting  up.  "Next  week  ? 
Why,  you  are  wild.  It  is  impossible,  simply  impossible." 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  289 

"  Sit  down,"  he  said  grimly.  "  We  will  never  be  able  to 
discuss  anything  rationally  if  you  fly  off  at  the  first  word 
like  that.  It  isn't  impossible.  It  is  simply  a  question  of 
convenience.  I  am  going  to  New  York  next  week  on 
business.  The  business  will  only  take  a  few  days,  but  it 
can't  be  postponed,  and  when  I  come  back  it  will  be  im 
possible  to  get  away  again  for  a  year,  perhaps.  So,  why 
can't  we  make  this  a  wedding  trip  ?  " 

"  If  you  can  go  in  a  year,  that  will  be  time  enough." 

His  face  darkened.     "  Do  you  insist  on  that  ?  " 

"  I  don't  insist  on  anything,"  she  said,  faltering.  "  But 
a  week  is  so  short,  and  it  surely  can't  be  impossible  for 
you  to  get  away  some  time  between,  if  you  want  to." 

"  For  business  reasons,  it  will  be  so  inconvenient  as  to 
be  practically  impossible.  I  am  just  at  a  critical  period  in 
my  professional  career,  and  this  year's  work  may  influence 
-my  entire  future.  Therefore  I  will  not  be  at  liberty  to  go 
and  come  except  as  my  business  determines.  You  may 
have  been  brought  up  to  think  you  can  control  circum 
stances.  I  confess  that  I  can't,  and  I  think,  on  the  whole, 
you  might  as  well  learn  that  you,  too,  must  submit  to 
them.  Don't  provoke  me,  Edith.  Why  can't  you  be 
reasonable  about  anything  ?  " 

"  I  think  the  unreasonable  thing  is  for  you  to  insist 
upon  talking  about  having  the  wedding  so  suddenly." 

He  made  a  strong  effort  to  control  himself  and  to  speak 
temperately  and  gently. 

"  It  isn't  as  though  it  were  a  new  idea  or  as  though  I 
were  a  stranger.  You  have  known  me  all  your  life.  You 
have  been  considering  this  matter  all  summer.  You 
have  just  said  you  would  be  my  wife.  I  don't  see  any 
thing  sudden  in  talking  about  the  wedding,  after  that." 

"  Well,  talk  about  it  then,  if  it  pleases  you,"  she  an 
swered.  She  felt  that  she  was  pettish  and  ungracious, 
but  something  she  could  not  control  urged  her  on. 


2QO  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"If  we  put  off  the  wedding  till  I  come  back,  there  will 
be  no  wedding  journey,  for  one  thing.  But  what  is  more 
important,  if  you  go  with  me  to  New  York,  you  can  take 
the  opportunity  to  pick  out  your  wedding  outfit.  It  will 
be  all  the  same  whether  that  comes  before  or  after  the 
ceremony.  Hereward  is  a  little  place  and  everything 
here  is  provincial.  I  don't  want  you  to  look  like  a  pro 
vincial.  If  my  plans  prosper,  we  can  live  in  Chicago. 
That  is  a  wider  field,  of  course,  and  I  have  been  working 
for  some  time  to  make  a  satisfactory  business  connec 
tion  with  an  established  firm  there.  Would  you  like 
that  ?  " 

"  Would  it  make  any  difference  if  I  didn't  ?  "  she  asked, 
tapping  the  floor  angrily  with  her  foot.  She  knew  that 
she  would  like  it,  but  she  did  not  like  to  have  it  announced 
as  a  matter  in  which  she  had  no  choice. 

As  he  was  about  to  answer,  there  was  a  sound  of  some 
one  entering  the  hall,  the  door  to  which  Edith  had  closed 
on  her  entrance.  Hale  frowned  and  bit  his  lip,  expecting 
an  interruption,  but  the  unknown  visitor  was  shown  into 
the  library  on  the  other  side  of  the  hall  from  Edith's  little 
reception  room.  There  were  a  few  words  in  a  voice  that 
Hale  did  not  distinguish  and  then  silence.  Edith  leaned 
back  in  her  chair,  a  trifle  paler  than  before  and  with  her 
anger  suddenly  vanished. 

"  I  simply  wanted  to  say,"  Hale  resumed,  "  that  if  these 
plans  succeed,  as  I  think  they  will,  we  shall  have  to  live  in 
Chicago,  and  it  may  be  necessary  for  us  to  go  very  soon, 
— within  a  few  months.  I  want  you  to  be  prepared  to 
take  your  place  there  as  you  ought  to." 

"  Oh,  don't  pretend  to  think  of  me  in  connection  with 
your  determination,"  she  said  with  a  last  flash.  It  seemed 
to  her  that  the  air  was  stifling,  and  involuntarily  she  put 
her  hand  to  her  throat.  She  knew  that  Bahrdt  was  wait 
ing  for  her,  and  the  thought  of  what  lay  before  her,  if 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  29! 

everything  was  not  settled  now  beyond  revoking,  fright 
ened  her.  Hale  could  not  have  evoked  a  better  argu 
ment  for  himself. 

"  It  would  be  more  agreeable  if  you  would  not  put  your 
self  into  opposition  to  everything  I  propose,"  he  said  in  a 
chill  tone.  "  If  we  are  going  to  live  in  Chicago,  you  cer 
tainly  will  want  to  be  properly  introduced  and  properly 
dressed.  It  seems  to  me  there  can  be  no  need  of  arguing 
such  a  matter  with  a  woman." 

She  had  been  thinking  rapidly  while  he  talked  slowly. 
Half  an  hour  ago  she  would  have  said  that  nothing  on 
earth  would  induce  her  to  consent  to  this  hurried  marriage. 
Now  she  knew  that  she  was  going  to  consent  unequivocally, 
and  she  had  a  feeling  that  it  was  only  the  beginning  of 
what  lay  before  her  for  all  time.  What  he  willed  would 
be  the  law  for  her  beyond  appeal,  whether  she  protested 
©ryielded  at  once. 

"Very  well,"  she  said  recklessly.  "We  might  as  well 
have  it  over  with." 

He  frowned.  "  Why  do  you  speak  in  that  way  ?  I 
think  I  have  a  right  to  something  more  than  toleration 
from  you,  Edith." 

"  Oh,  I  didn't  mean  that.  But  I  hate  scenes.  Won't 
you  please  just  take  things  for  granted  ?" 

"  Of  course.  I  didn't  mean  to  tease  you,  only — "  He 
looked  so  masculinely  helpless  that  something  like  pity 
and  remorse  touched  her.  She  held  out  her  hand. 

"  We  aren't  sentimental  people,  either  of  us,"  she  said, 
"but  I  think  we  suit  each  other,  and  we  will  get  along 
very  well  without  any  violent  demonstrations." 

"  Yes,"  he  said,  echoing  honestly  enough  the  chill  senti 
ment  though  surprised  it  should  come  from  her  instead  of 
from  him.  He  rose  and  took  up  his  hat  ;  something  in 
her  tone  had  dismissed  him.  But  he  lingered  a  moment 
and  looked  at  her  curiousl 


292  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"  Do  you  realize  that  this  is  our  betrothal  night  ?  The 
end  of  our  romance  ?  " 

She  shrugged  her  shoulders  lightly. 

"  Don't  pretend  you  believe  in  romance  !  " 

"  Why,  everybody  pretends  once  at  least.  Edith,  let  me 
have  those  flowers  in  your  hair,  for  sweet  remembrance." 
He  put  out  his  hand  to  take  them  without  waiting  for  per 
mission,  but  she  drew  back  quickly. 

"  No,  no  !  " 

His  face  darkened. 

"  It  is  a  little  thing  to  ask." 

"  Oh,  nonsense  !     Don't  be  absurd." 

"  Why  do  you  refuse  ?  " 

"  Because  I  said  no,  that's  why,"  she  cried  passionately. 
She  snatched  the  flowers  from  her  hair,  crushed  them  in 
her  hands  and  flung  them  into  the  open  fireplace.  She 
had  never  felt  so  brave  to  defy  him.  It  would  have  been 
sacrilege  for  him  to  carry  off  those  forget-me-nots  as  a 
love  gift  from  her. 

He  looked  at  her  with  glowing  eyes,  but  with  an  effort 
he  mastered  himself. 

"  Don't  let  us  quarrel  on  our  engagement  evening,"  he 
said  rather  grimly.  "  It  might  be  ominous." 

"  I'm  sure  I  don't  want  to,"  she  pouted. 

"  I  suppose  after  a  while  we  will  come  to  know  how  to 
avoid  each  other's  friction-points.  Good-night, — my  dear." 

He  took  her  hand  and  bent  his  head  to  hers.  She 
flushed,  but  did  not  draw  away.  It  was  a  part  of  the 
price,  and  she  let  him  kiss  her.  Her  drooping  eyelids  and 
the  startled  quiver  of  her  lips  fired  the  passion  in  his  veins, 
and  before  she  could  realize  his  intention  he  flung  his  arm 
about  her  shoulders  and  kissed  her  again.  She  freed  her 
self  violently,  and  with  no  desire  but  to  escape  she  flung 
open  the  door  into  the  hall  and  ran  quickly  up  half  a  dozen 
steps. 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  293 

"  Good-night,"  she  said,  waving  her  hand  to  him  over 
the  balustrade.  She  had  recovered  sufficiently  to  put  a 
dash  of  coquetry  into  her  smile,  and  she  turned  her  cheek 
backward  over  her  shoulder  bewitchingly,  though  she 
stood  poised  for  further  flight  if  necessary. 

He  came  to  the  foot  of  the  stairs  and  leaned  his  arms 
upon  the  post,  and  looked  up  at  her  with  a  laugh. 

"  That's  a  kind  way  to  treat  me  !  Do  you  think  that 
after  the  dance  you  have  led  me  all  summer  I  am  going 
to  be  put  off  in  this  way  much  longer  ?  " 

"  What  do  you  expect  ? "  she  flashed. 

"  Obedience  !  " 

"  I  will  never  promise  to  obey  you  !  I  will  not  answer, 
if  he  puts  that  into  the  service." 

"  Oh,  that  won't  make  any  difference  in  the  eye  of  the 
law." 

She  knew  that  he  was  pronouncing  her  sentence,  and 
the  impulse  to  free  herself  from  the  hateful  tangle  of  her 
promises  rose  and  struggled  within  her,  but  for  the  last 
time  she  put  it  down. 

"  You  are  not  very  polite  !  Don't  you  think  you  have 
been  keeping  me  here  in  the  hall  long  enough  ?" 

Involuntarily  she  glanced  toward  the  closed  library 
door.  She  had  been  in  an  agony  of  fear  lest  Bahrdt 
should  hear  them.  She  spoke  in  a  nervously  hushed 
voice  herself,  and  her  senses  had  been  strained  to  catch 
any  sound  from  the  library.  He  caught  the  look,  for  he 
was  always  quicker  at  detecting  the  signs  of  guilt  than  in 
crediting  those  of  innocence,  and  with  a  sudden  change 
in  manner  he  asked, 

"Who  was  it  that  came  in  awhile  ago  ? " 

"  I  don't  know,"  she  exclaimed  on  the  cowardly  impulse 
of  the  moment. 

"  Was  it  Bahrdt  ?  " 

"  How  should  I  know  ?  I  suppose  it  was  someone  to 
see  Aunt  Eleanor." 


294  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"  Where  are  you  going  now  ?  " 

"  I  am  going  to  my  room.  I  am  tired  out."  She 
looked  ready  to  cry. 

"  Do  /  tire  you  ?  " 

Yesterday  she  would  have  answered,  "  Desperately," 
with  a  sense  of  exhilaration  in  her  own  courage.  To 
night  she  dared  not.  She  felt  that  she  would  never  dare 
again.  She  hung  her  head  and  murmured, 

"  No,  not  you.     It  is  just — that  I  am  tired." 

"  Well,  go  then.     I  will  see  you  to-morrow." 

He  let  himself  out,  and  Edith  flew  upstairs.  There 
was  an  hysterical  sob  in  her  throat. 


XXXI. 

Ax  the  head  of  the  stairs  Miss  Estee  intercepted 
her. 

"  Edith,"  she  said,  and  there  was  a  sound  of  entreaty 
in  her  voice  that  said  much.  She  had  been  waiting  in 
her  room,  with  hands  locked  close,  while  she  heard  Bahrdt 
come  and  Hale  go.  She  hardly  gave  a  thought  to  them. 
Her  heart  was  with  Edith,  the  girl  who  was  sealing  all 
her  future,  while  she  sat  alone  above  in  the  fading  light. 
She  was  a  mere  child  !  How  could  she  know  what  she 
was  doing  ?  Her  very  self-confidence  and  hardness  were 
T)orn  of  her  ignorance.  But  ever  the  old  must  sit  with 
folded  hands  and  watch  fearfully  from  their  vantage  point 
of  knowledge,  while  the  young,  who  must  act,  laugh 
knowledge  to  scorn,  till  they  in  turn  come  to  look  on 
helplessly  while  those  they  love  sign  away  their  lives  with 
a  smile. 

"  Edith,"  she  implored. 

The  girl  stopped  on  her  hasty  way  to  her  room. 

"  It  is  all  settled,"  she  said,  with  an  affectation  of  non 
chalance,  though  her  voice  betrayed  the  effort. 

"  Oh,  Edith,  are  you  happy  ?  " 

"  As  happy  as  is  good  for  me,  I  suppose." 

"  I  want  you  to  be  happy,  dear  !  " 

"  So  do  I,"  the  girl  answered  naively.  "  I  always  have 
wanted  that.  Wouldn't  it  be  malicious  of  fate,  if  I  should 
prove  to  have  sacrificed  the  very  thing  that  I  was  trying 
to  save  by  sacrificing  everything  else  !  "  She  laughed 
lightly  and  her  eyjs  met  Miss  Estee's,  and  then  in  a  mo- 


296  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

ment  she  was  holding  her  aunt  in  her  arms,  half  whimper 
ing,  half  laughing. 

"  Don't  look  at  me  like  that,  aunt  Eleanor !  It  is 
dreadful  enough  to  have  to  choose  a  husband,  without 
having  you  look  as  though  I  were  signing  my  death-war 
rant.  Goodness  knows,  maybe  I  am  !  Whatever  was  I 
born  for  ? " 

She  dabbed  her  handkerchief  frankly  to  her  eyes,  and 
then  ran  to  the  mirror  to  see  that  they  were  not 
red, — and  that  there  were  no  forgotten  flowers  in  her 
hair. 

But  at  the  library  door  she  quailed  for  a  moment. 

Karl  was  standing  in  the  center  of  the  room  with  his 
eyes  fixed  upon  the  door,  and  when  she  appeared  he  took 
a  step  toward  her  with  passionate  eagerness.  Then  he 
stopped  short,  and  involuntarily  raised  his  hand  as  though 
to  shield  himself  from  a  blow. 

"You  did  not  wear  them?"  he  faltered  with  a  bewil 
dered  look.  It  was  like  the  look  of  a  child  who  does  not 
understand  the  calamity  that  has  befallen  him. 

"  I  couldn't,"  she  said  in  a  low  tone,  and  she  stood  with 
bent  head,  like  one  accused.  "  I  hope  you  will  believe 
me,  Mr.  Bahrdt,  when  I  say  that  I  am  very  sorry.  I  did 
not  know — I  shall  always  remember —  She  faltered  and 
failed  under  the  pain  of  the  bewildered  gaze  she  felt 
fixed  upon  her  face,  and  to  have  it  over  she  ended  ab 
ruptly,  "  I  am  to  marry  Mr.  Hale." 

'•  You  are  going  to  marry  Stephen  Hale  ? "  His  eyes 
rather  than  his  lips  demanded  it. 

"  Yes,"  she  breathed. 

"Stephen  Hale  ?"  he  repeated,  as  though  he  had  not 
heard  aright.  "  No,  I  think  I  am  stupid.  You  cannot 
mean  that.  It  is  not  true.  Tell  me  !  "  He  came  to  her 
and  held  out  his  hands  imploringly. 

"  It  is  true,"  she  cried,  frightened  into  insistence  by  the 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTJA7Y.  297 

tone  of  his  voice.  "  I  tell  you  I  am  engaged  to  Mr.  Hale. 
I  should  think  you  might  understand." 

He  laughed  shortly. 

"  I  understand  what  you  say.  It  is  you  I  do  not  under 
stand.  I  know  well  enough  that  you  have  no  love  for 
that  man.  Have  I  not  watched  you  ?  Have  I  not  seen 
how  you  fear  him  and  shrink  from  him  in  your  inmost 
soul  ?  Oh,  it  did  not  take  me  long  to  make  sure  of  that. 
I  loved  you,  so  I  watched,  and  I  saw  that  you  dreaded 
him,  and — turned  to  me." 

"  Mr.  Bahrdt,  how  dare  you !  This  is  unpardonable  ! 
I  will  not  listen  !  "  She  was  trembling  with  anger  and 
fear. 

"  It  is  true,"  he  said,  with  gathering  intensity.  "  There 
is  no  pardon  needed  for  speaking  what  is  true.  If  you 
have  not  known  it  before  you  shall  know  it  now.  You 
love  me" 

"  I  do  not  !     I  never  did  !  " 

"Tut!  Why  do  you  lie?  "he  said  gently.  He  came 
to  her  and  took  her  face  between  his  hands  and  turned  it 
up  to  his.  "  Look  at  me,"  he  said  in  soft  command. 

She  tried  to  look  angry,  indignant,  defiant,  as  she 
raised  her  eyes  to  his,  but  under  the  compelling  and  wist 
ful  tenderness  of  his  gaze,  everything  faded  out  into  a 
mist  of  tears  and  she  caught  her  breath  with  a  frightened 
sob.  Then,  before  she  knew  it,  his  arms  were  around  her 
and  his  lips  had  touched  hers  and  he  was  murmuring  soft 
words  in  her  ear. 

"You  did  not  know  the  truth  before,  that  was  it,  was  it 
not,  my  little  one  ?  Ah,  you  love  me,  heart's  dearest,  as 
I  have  loved  you, — from  the  beginning.  Foolish  child, 
not  to  see  !  Did  you  think  it  was  to  mean  nothing  that 
we  loved  each  other  ?  Blind  of  you  !  Why,  nothing  else 
means  anything  now,  does  it,  dearest  one  ?  " 

Then  she  tore   herself   from    him  with    such  terror  and 


298  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY, 

such  agony  in  her  face,  and  the  two  hands  she  put  out  to 
him  trembled  so  appealingly  that  he  fell  back  a  step  in 
dismay  and  murmured, 

"  I  frightened  you.  Forgive  me  !  "  even  while  he  won 
dered  blankly  what  had  frightened  her. 

"  I  told  you — "  she  gasped,  "  I  told  you  that —  I  have 
promised " 

"  Yes,"  he  said  gravely  as  she  stopped. 

"  Oh,  why  don't  you  understand  and  go  away  ?  Why 
are  you  so  cruel  ?" 

He  pushed  an  arm-chair  toward  her. 

"  Sit  down,"  he  said  briefly. 

She  obeyed.  Indeed  she  had  not  strength  to  stand. 
He  stood  beside  her  but  without  touching  her  for  a  few 
moments,  waiting  for  her  to  recover  herself. 

"  Do  you  mean  that  I  should  have  waited  until  you  are 
released  from  your  promise  to  Hale  ?  "  he  asked  gravely. 
"  That  is  true.  But  I  lost  myself — when  I  found  you.  I 
will  wait.  I  can  be  patient,  though  it  does  not  come  easy 
to  me.  But  I  will  go  away  at  once  if  you  wish  and  not 
see  you  again  until  you  are  free  to  listen  to  all  I  must 
say." 

She  looked  at  him  dumbly,  despairingly. 

"You  must  explain  to  him  at  once.  You  shrink  from 
that,  tender  little  heart  ?  But  it  will  be  the  last  time  you 
will  need  to  tremble  before  him.  It  was  all  a  mistake, — 
I  can  understand, — and  when  you  tell  him  so,  and  tell 
him  that  your  heart  is  mine, — ah,  the  blessing  of  it  ! — he 
will  not  reproach  you.  He  will  understand  that  nothing 
else  is  possible,  since  you  do  love  me, — as  you  do,  you 
do  !  "  He  caught  her  hand  for  an  impassioned  moment 
and  then  released  it  with  a  laugh. 

"Do  not  scold!  I  will  not  offend  again, — though  it 
may  be  best  for  me  to  go  away  as  you  say,  tyrant  !  How 
soon  may  I  come  back  ?" 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  299 

"  Never  !  "  cried  Edith,  finding  her  voice  at  last.  She 
gave  him  a  proud  glance  and  then  turned  her  face  away. 
"  I  told  you  that  I  am  to  marry  Mr.  Hale.  My  word  is 
pledged  to  him.  You  have  acted  very  rudely.  I  cannot 
forgive  it,  and  I  do  not  wish  to  see  you  again." 

He  did  not  move.  He  had  been  looking  down  at  her, 
his  face  glowing  with  the  joy  he  had  snatched  so  boldly 
from  the  edge  of  denial  and  which  made  him  seem  a  dif 
ferent  man.  But  as  the  meaning  of  her  repulse  made 
itself  clear  to  him, — which  it  did  slowly,  for  it  was  hard  to 
believe  her  words  against  the  confession  he  had  wrenched 
a  moment  before  from  her  eyes,  her  lips,  her  yielding 
form, — the  light  died  out  till  it  was  only  a  gray  mask,  stern 
and  hard  and  without  pity,  that  bent  toward  her. 

"  Do  you  mean  what  you  are  saying  ?  "  he  asked  in  a 
voice  from  which  every  trace  of  emotion  was  banished. 
"  Do  you  really  mean  that  this  is  your  decision,  and  that 
I  am  to  be  nothing  in  your  life  ?  Forgive  me  if  I  am  dull 
to  understand.  I  do  not  wish  to  mistake.  You  send  me 
away  from  you  ?  " 

"Yes."  She  barely  breathed  the  word.  She  was  more 
frightened  by  his  severely  impersonal  tone  than  by  any 
passion. 

"  And  you  mean  to  marry  Stephen  Hale  ?  "  he  continued, 
as  relentlessly  as  an  inquisitor. 

She  could  not  challenge  his  right  to  ask.  Under  his 
eyes  she  could  do  nothing  but  answer.  She  bent  her 
head. 

He  folded  his  arms  across  his  breast  and  stood  silent  a 
moment,  looking  down  at  her  as  she  cowered  under  his 
eyes.  Then  he  gave  a  short  laugh. 

"  And  I  might  have  married  this  woman  !  "  he  said,  as 
though  to  himself. 

She  lifted  her  head  with  an  effort  to  recover  her  cus 
tomary  weapons  of  girlish  power. 


3<DO  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"  You  have  no  right  to  blame  me.  You  should  have 
understood  that — that — 

"  That  a  woman  with  such  a  face  could  have  such  a 
soul  ?  I  was  a  fool,  no  doubt,  but  I  have  known  little  of 
women.  That  must  be  my  excuse.  And  when  I  saw  that 
in  your  heart  you  feared  Stephen  Hale,  shrank  from  his 
hand  and  trembled  at  his  voice, " 

"  I  will  not  listen  to  you,"  she  cried.  There  was  a 
hunted  look  in  her  face,  and  she  half  rose,  with  an  effort 
to  be  imperious. 

"  You  will  listen  to  me,"  he  said  sternly.  "  I  have 
loved  you.  I  would  have  been  glad  to  give  my  whole  life 
to  serving  you.  Since  you  will  not  have  it  so,  I  will  at 
least  do  you  this  one  service  before  I  go  out  of  your  life. 
I  will  sho,w  you  yourself.  You  fear  him  now, — you  will 
come  to  hate  him  before  long.  Then  you  will  wake  to 
know  what  it  means  to  be  bound  in  bonds  of  hate,  with  no 
escape  for  you  save  that  which  leads  out  of  life.  You  are 
young  and  your  desire  is  to  be  happy.  Can  you  think 
what  it  will  be  when  you  look  to  death,  death  that  now  you 
shudder  at,  as  the  friend  who  may  come  some  far  off  day 
to  deliver  you  from  a  life  that  you  loathe?  For  you  will 
loathe  it.  It  might  be  possible  for  some  to  go  through 
such  a  life  without  being  crushed,  but  you  are  not  hard 
enough.  Day  by  day  the  discord  and  deceit  born  of  hate 
will  grow  thicker  about  you,  till  the  best  part  of  your 
nature  is  withered,  and  you  will  remember  what  you  were 
and  hate  yourself  for  what  you  are.  The  poison  of  your 
falsehood  will  go  with  you  wherever  you  go,  an  evil  in 
fluence  to  all  who  come  near  you,  and  your  life,  which 
should  have  been  a  blessing  to  all,  and  might  have  been, 
will  be  a  curse  instead, — and  chiefly  to  yourself,  ignorant 
child  that  you  are."  There  was  neither  love  nor  anger 
now  in  his  passionless  voice.  He  was  no  longer  the  Karl 
Bahrdt  whom  she  had  commanded  with  a  smile.  He  was 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  30 1 

her  judge,  and  the  words  he  pronounced  were  the  words 
of  irrevocable  doom.  But  his  voice  came  to  her  across  a 
sea  of  sounding  waves,  for  the  room  reeled  and  she  closed 
her  eyes.  Then  in  a  minute  more  she  knew  that  she  was 
alone,  and  she  knew,  too,  that  somewhere  a  door  had 
swung  to  against  her. 


XXXII. 

WHEN  Rodman's  telegram  reached  his  foreman,  "  Baily 
shall  stay  if  every  other  man  goes  out,"  there  was  nothing 
for  it  but  to  communicate  his  decision  to  the  delegation 
appointed  by  the  local  union. 

The  result,  to  Baily's  joy,  was  a  strike. 

It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  story  to  enter  into  the 
details  of  that  action  or  to  discuss  the  rights  and  wrongs 
involved  in  it.  The  event  had  an  effect  upon  the  for 
tunes  and  character  of  several  of  the  people  whose  fates 
had  run  together  at  Hereward  that  summer,  and  it  is 
with  them,  not  with  the  episode  in  itself,  that  we  are  con 
cerned.  Some  years  ago  an  island  went  clown  in  the 
Pacific,  and  its  overwhelming  sent  out  a  wave  that  swept 
half-way  around  the  globe  .and  wrecked  fair  vessels  and 
trim  fishing-smacks  lying  at  anchor  in  a  South  American 
harbor.  And  doubtless  it  also  washed  up  treasures  of 
sea-weed  and  shells  that  kept  village  children  happy  for 
many  a  day. 

The  strike  had  been  deliberately  planned  for  and 
brought  to  pass  by  Ben  Bail}',  though  he  did  not  claim 
that  honor  publicly.  It  was  enough  for  him  to  know  that 
Paul  was  to  be  freed,  willing  or  unwilling,  from  the 
burden  which  his  unwelcome  inheritance  had  laid  upon 
him,  and  sent  back  to  his  own  place  in  life, — the  only 
place,  according  to  Baily's  theory,  where  his  powers,  such 
as  they  were,  could  count  for  much  in  the  world  or  work 
to  bring  about  the  elements  of  completeness  and  happi 
ness  in  his  own  life.  That  other  people  might  be  in- 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  303 

volved  was  beyond  the  range  of  Ben's  immediate  inter 
est.  Particularly  it  would  have  surprised  him  to  know 
that  the  strike  could  in  any  way  affect  Miss  Mabie.  But, 
through  what  seemed  like  an  accident  yet  was  really  but 
the  outcome  of  causes  set  in  motion  before,  it  was  Joyce 
herself  who  put  the  match  to  the  fuse. 

Karl  Bahrdt  had  disappeared  from  Hereward  the  sec 
ond  clay  after  his  return.  Only  Edith  Estee  knew  why, 
and  even  she  supposed,  as  others  did,  that  he  had 
returned  to  Chicago.  This  was  a  mistake.  Where  he 
spent  those  days  he  never  said.  Perhaps  he  hardly 
remembered,  for  the  battle  he  was  fighting  was  in  his  own 
thoughts,  and  he  probably  took  little  note  of  where  his 
wanderings  had  led  him.  But  in  the  meantime  the  print 
ers  who  published  his  "  Justice  "  were  calling  for  copy,  and 
Joyce  had  not  received  the  editorial  which  he  usually 
placed  in  her  hands  as  the  heavy  gun  of  the  issue.  So 
she  set  to  work,  as  she  had  done  on  several  other  occa 
sions,  to  supply  the  lack.  But  on  this  occasion  the  con 
ditions  were  somewhat  different. 

She  was  desperately  unhappy,  in  the  first  place,  and 
that  means  an  unhealthy  mental  state, — for  a  woman,  at 
any  rate.  Her  father  had  been  shamefully  and  unjustly 
accused,— or,  if  justly,  so  much  the  worse.  Her  lover 
had  left  her.  It  was  at  her  command,  of  course,  but  that 
did  not  make  the  ache  any  easier  to  bear.  So,  her  own 
affairs  being  thus,  the  whole  existing  order  of  affairs  in 
general  seemed  out  of  joint,  and  all  there  remained  to  do, 
while  the  law  was  working  out  its  slow  processes,  was  to 
shut  herself  into  her  hot  little  room,  with  Bahrdt's  revo 
lutionary  books  before  her,  and  pin  her  thought  down  to 
the  consideration  of  the  sufferings  of  humanity  in  general 
and  the  wrongs  of  the  laboring  classes  in  particular.  She 
thought  that  she  was  banishing  emotion  and  confining 
herself  strictly  to  the  cold  peaks  of  intellect  as  she  gath- 


304  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

ered  statistics  and  culled  a  burning  phrase  here  and  a 
scathing  denunciation  there  ;  but  as  a  matter  of  fact,  she 
was  simply  letting  emotion  work  out  on  a  different  line. 
Given  a  generous-hearted  girl  brought  face  to  face  with  a 
set  of  cruel  facts,  and  there  is  little  question  but  that  she 
will  let  sympathy  carry  her  beyond  the  delicate  line  of 
just  discrimination.  If  her  heart  is  aching  at  the  same 
time  with  a  bitter  personal  loss,  she  can  hardly  escape 
coloring  the  abstractions  with  which  she  deals  with  her 
own  mood. 

So  Joyce  wrote  an  editorial  on  the  necessity  of  organ 
ized  opposition  to  the  tyranny  of  capital.  Unfortunately 
the  vigor  and  magnetic  enthusiasm  which  had  made  her 
valuable  to  Bahrdt  in  the  first  place  did  not  desert  her. 
It  might  have  been  better  if  she  had  been  dull  and  cold, 
but  she  had  never  written  so  convincingly  because  she 
had  never  been  so  deeply  stirred.  She  was  writing 
behind  the  hedge  of  anonymity,  and  she  put  no  check 
upon  the  eloquence  which  swept  along  her  thought.  Paul 
kept  a  copy  of  that  paper  ever  after,  with  a  secret  feeling 
that  he  had  never  known  before  how  near  the  girl's 
power  came  to  being  genius.  It  compelled  a  respect  that 
he  had  not  given  her  before  with  all  his  admiration,  and 
he  wondered  a  little  in  his  soul  that  she  had  not  found 
too  keen  a  fascination  in  flight  to  ever  consent  to  come 
back  to  him.  But  once,  when  he  ventured  to  tell  her 
this,  she  begged  him  so  tearfully,  with  looks  so  flushed 
and  shamed,  never  to  speak  of  it  again,  that  he  could 
only  kiss  her  and  promise,  and  marvel  a  little  more  at  his 
own  incalculable  good  fortune,  and  vow  in  his  soul  to  be 
very  good  to  her  always. 

But  when  Joyce  read  it  over  that  night,  with  the  thrill 
of  rapid  composition  still  tingling  in  her  brain,  she  knew 
that  she  had  written  something  with  vitality  in  it,  and  she 
sent  it  out  to  the  printer  and  then  threw  herself  down  on 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  305 

her  bed  to  lie  with  wide  eyes  and  throbbing  head  until 
the  cool  morning  light  coaxed  her  into  a  restless  slumber. 
Before  she  awoke  the  little  revolutionary  sheet  had  been 
printed,  for  it  was  already  late,  and  the  mails  had  carried 
away  the  two  hundred  copies  due  on  its  list  of  paying 
subscribers  and  the  three  hundred  sent  out  for  "  agitative 
purposes." 

What  became  of  four  hundred  and  ninety-nine  of  these, 
(except  the  one  that  Paul  laid  away  afterwards  with  his 
love-letters),  is  neither  known  nor  very  important.  They 
probably  went  the  way  of  all  printer's  ink,  and  were 
choked  with  dust  in  due  season.  But  to  one  of  them  it 
befell  that  it  should  reach  Hereward  and  come  into  the 
hands  of  the  secretary  of  the  local  union  at  exactly  the 
hour  most  favorable  for  a  test  of  its  qualities  as  an  explo 
sive, — the  hour,  namely,  when  a  secret  meeting  had  been 
called  to  consider  what  action  should  be  taken  regarding 
the  new  men  who  were  expected  to  come  down  from  Chi 
cago. 

Where  do  rumors  come  from  ?  And  where  do  they 
steal  the  very  uniform  and  countersign  of  facts  ?  The 
day  before  it  had  been  rumored  in  Hereward  that  Rod 
man  was  going  to  bring  a  new  force  down  to  man  the 
idle  Works,  and  to-day  arguments  were  made  from  that 
as  from  a  foundation  fact  of  which  there  was  no  question. 

Rodman  had  been  down  on  a  flying  visit  after  receiving 
his  foreman's  second  telegram  announcing  the  consumma 
tion  of  the  strike.  There  was  an  imperious  air  of  decisive 
ness  about  him  that  was  new,  and  the  men  who  watched 
from  the  idle  street-corners  read  in  it  no  good  to  their 
cause.  He  had  spent  several  hours  with  his  foreman  in 
the  deserted  factory,  and  then  had  gone  off,  taking  the 
bone  of  their  contention,  Ben  Baily,  with  him  to  the  city. 
The  doors  of  the  factory  were  closed,  and  the  foreman 
refused  to  be  interviewed. 


306  APPRENTICES   TO  DESTINY. 

So  far  the  facts  were  indisputable.  Beyond  that  the 
watchers  drew  a  sketch  on  theory  and  filled  it  m  with 
imagination.  They  had  assumed,  when  they  decided  on  a 
strike,  that  the  event  would  be  of  as  vital  importance  to 
him  as  to  them.  They  could  hardly  have  understood  that 
for  the  last  two  weeks  the  interests  of  the  factory  had 
dropped  so  far  out  of  sight  that  he  had  deemed  it  a  simple 
and  expeditious  way  of  disposing  of  an  unwelcome  inter 
ruption  to  order  the  Works  "  shut  down  "  until  the  men 
chose  to  come  back.  His  instructions  to  the  foreman 
had  been  concise  and  brief.  The  men  who  lounged  out 
side  and  measured  his  perturbation  by  the  length  of  his 
conference  would  have  felt  that  their  dignity  was  again 
trampled  under  the  iron  heel  of  plutocracy  if  they  had 
known  that  he  was  talking  to  Ben  Baily,  not  to  the  fore 
man,  and  that  the  subject  of  his  discourse  had  nothing  to 
do  with  them  or  their  affairs. 

The  idea  had  struck  him  that  Baily's  natural  talent  as  a 
private  detective  and  vigilance  committee  combined  might 
be  of  some  use  in  helping  on  the  slow  and  fruitless  search 
instituted  through  the  regular  legal  channels.  With  elab 
orate  care  he  went  over  the  details  of  the  case  with  him, 
explaining,  expounding  and  laying  down  the  law  in  a  way 
that  would  have  amazed  Mr.  Jordan.  Paul's  legal  talent 
was  exercised  "  once,  and  only  once,  and  for  one  only." 
At  the  end  Baily  consented  to  see  what  he  could  do 
toward  tracing  the  robbery  to  its  author.  Perhaps  he 
recognized  that  his  work  of  freeing  Rodman  would  not  be 
accomplished  till  he  had  him  safely  married  and  a'.  They 
went  off  together  by  the  next  train,  and  the  factory  was 
left  grimly  silent  and  unresponsive  while  the  men  who 
had  worked  in  it  hovered  about  the  corners  of  the  streets 
and  wondered.  That  it  was  to  remain  closed  could  not 
occur  to  them.  The  very  lack  of  demonstration  on  the 
part  of  the  enemy,  (Rodman),  was  proof  conclusive  of 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  307 

dark  schemes  a-brewing,  and  within  twenty-four  hours 
every  man  of  them  knew  that  Rodman  had  gone  to 
Chicago  to  secure  the  services  of  non-union  men,  that  he 
had  already  secured  them,  that  they  were  coming  down 
by  the  next  train,  that  they  were  coming  guarded  by  an 
armed  squad  of  police.  There  was  no  time  to  let  the 
rumor  grow  into  greater  definiteness,  for  it  was  evident 
that  immediate  steps  should  be  taken  to  meet  the  emer 
gency  already  evoked. 

This  was  the  occasion  of  the  secret  meeting  convoked 
by  the  active  spirits.  What  had  been  done,  what  could  be 
done,  what  should  be  done,  crowded  each  other  in  their 
speeches.  There  was  real  oratory,  so  full  of  passion  and 
earnestness  that  it  was  hard  for  the  conservative  members 
to  get  a  hearing  or  even  to  hold  their  own  opinions  against 
the  tide.  Excited  by  their  own  eloquence,  the  agitators 
grew  more  and  more  demonstrative.  Should  they  allow 
these  unorganized  men  to  come  in  and  take  the  work  out 
of  their  hands  and  the  food  out  of  their  mouths  ?  Not  if 
they  could  be  persuaded,  bought  or  terrified  off.  Some 
one  mentioned  the  soldiers.  It  would  be  too  late  to  do 
anything  if  they  waited  till  the  hostile  forces  were  in  pos 
session.  It  would  be  easier  to  see  that  the  machines  were 
"  fixed  "  in  the  first  place  so  that  it  would  take  something 
more  than  the  knowledge  possessed  by  "  scabs  "  to  run 
them.  Someone  hissed,  and  the  hiss  was  drowned  in  a 
shower  of  counter-hisses.  Sentiment  was  going  strongly 
with  the  bolder  speakers,  when  one  of  the  cooler  men  got 
the  floor  and  tried  to  turn  the  tide. 

"  I'm  not  talking  against  protecting  our  rights,"  he  con 
ciliated.  "I'm  just  as  much  as  any  of  you  for  downing 
the  scabs.  But  we  want  to  be  careful  that  we  don't  get 
on  the  wrong  side  of  the  law " 

"  We  are  that  now,  and  always  will  be  till  we  take  a 
hand  in  making  it,"  interrupted  a  voice. 


308  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"  That's  all  right,  but  it  won't  do  for  us  to  give  people 
a  handle  against  us.  Our  own  best  men  don't  do  that. 
What  would  Karl  Bahrdt  say  to  the  notion  of  damaging 
the  Works  ?  " 

"  What  would  Karl  Bahrdt  say  ?  "  cried  the  secretary, 
springing  to  his  feet  and  pulling  the  last  number  of 
"  Justice  "  excitedly  from  his  pocket.  "  This  is  what  he 
does  say,  and  this  is  what  he  means,  and  there  isn't  any 
dodging  the  question  or  skulking  behind  covers  about 
Karl  Bahrdt ! "  And  then  and  there  he  read  Joyce 
Mabie's  luckless  editorial  from  beginning  to  end. 

There  was  a  responsive  burst  of  applause  that  carried 
all  possibility  of  cool  judgment  away  with  it.  The  tide 
of  enthusiasm  had  swept  them  over  the  bar  and  out  into 
the  sea  of  unreason.  Under  the  guidance  of  the  hot-heads, 
who  cared  more,  at  that  moment,  for  their  own  wild  wills 
than  for  any  abstraction  of  justice  or  equity,  they  hurried 
from  the  committee-room,  down  the  road  in  the  dark, 
with  a  caution  for  silence,  to  where  the  deserted  factory 
loomed  square  and  grim  in  the  night.  They  broke  their 
way  in  through  a  low  window.  By  this  time  the  men 
who  might  have  had  a  restraining  influence  had  gone  off 
— perhaps  with  a  care  to  proving  an  alibi  if  necessary. 

It  was  not  an  idle  precaution,  for  a  little  after  midnight 
the  people  of  Hereward  were  awakened  by  the  unusual 
sound  of  their  fire-engine  tearing  through  the  silent 
street.  The  Rodman  Works  were  in  flames. 


XXXIII. 

CUMMINGS  had  telegraphed  at  once  to  Rodman,  but,  as 
it  happened,  Paul  was  out  when  the  message  came,  and  it 
was  some  hours  later,  when  he  returned  from  one  of  his 
long,  aimless  tramps,  that  he  found  Bahrdt  waiting  for 
him, — Bahrdt  thin  and  stern  and  haggard,  with  travel- 
stained  dress  and  a  hand  that  trembled  with  fatigue. 

"  Karl  !  You  here  ?  Why,  old  man,  what  has  happened 
to  you  ?  You  look  all  pulled  down." 

"  To  me  ?  Nothing,"  Bahrdt  answered,  with  a  surprised 
'glance.  "  But  you —  Haven't  you  heard  ?  " 

"  Heard  what  ?  I  haven't  heard  anything.  Chicago  is 
a  howling  solitude  to  me.  You've  been  living  in  Here- 
ward,  where  things  happen  and  there  is  something  to  hear. 
What  is  it  ?  " 

"  I  haven't  been  in  Hereward  for  two  weeks,"  Bahrdt 
answered  in  the  same  unnaturally  constrained  voice.  He 
passed  his  hand  over  his  forehead  with  a  gesture  of  utter 
weariness.  "  I  came  in  on  the  last  train,  half  an  hour  ago, 
and  I  struck  a  man  who  left  Hereward  this  morning  early 
to  see  me, —  Haven't  you  seen  the  last  edition  of  the 
papers  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  Paul  with  a  startled  look.  His  first  thought 
was  that  Joyce  was  in  Chicago,  so  the  worst  could  not 
have  happened. 

Bahrdt  picked  up  the  unopened  dispatch  envelope  which 
was  waiting  on  Paul's  table,  and  handed  it  to  him  without 
a  word.  He  tore  it  open,  read  it  and  read  it  again,  and 
then  tossed  it  down. 


3IO  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"  Burned  !  Well  !  "  He  took  up  the  paper  and  read  it 
again.  "  Interesting  !  What  do  you  think  of  that?" 

"  You  are  not  overwhelmed  by  the  misfortune,  then  ? 
It  means  little  to  you  ?  "  Bahrdt  asked  with  a  serious  look. 

"  Why,  it  means  something,  I  suppose.  It  means  the 
loss  of  all  the  property  my  uncle  left  me,  and  I  suppose 
no  man  can  say  that  loss  of  fortune  means  nothing.  But, 
— honestly,  the  Works  have  been  an  incubus.  I  didn't 
have  the  courage  to  throw  them  over  when  Baily  first 
wanted  me  to,  but — I  believe  I  am  really  glad  to  be  rid  of 
the  whole  thing  without  any  responsibility  for  it." 

"  I  am  glad  it  hurts  you  no  worse.  It  is  more  fatal 
to  me." 

"  How  to  you,  old  fellow  ?  You  didn't  have  anything 
to  do  with  the  conflagration,  did  you  ? " 

"  Even  that.  But  it  is  fatal  to  me  in  a  different  way. 
It  has  shaken  my  faith  in  myself  to  the  very  foundations  !  " 
He  spoke  with  a  sudden  passion,  and  turned  abruptly 
away. 

Paul  was  startled  and  puzzled,  but  before  he  could 
formulate  any  question  Bahrdt  went  on,  in  a  rapid,  vi 
brating  undertone  which  betrayed  the  unusual  strain  upon 
his  emotions. 

"  It  has  upset  me, — made  me  doubt  myself,  my  methods. 
I  do  not  know  where  I  stand.  I  do  not  know  what  I 
think.  I  was  so  sure,  so  very  sure,  a  little  while  ago. 
But  this, — it  is  as  though  I  had  been  playing,  like  a  child, 
with  forces  I  did  not  understand,  and  there  has  been  an 
explosion.  It  is  not  the  explosion  itself,  it  is  the  terror  of 
the  unknown  forces.  I  do  not  know  how  I  could  have 
believed  so  blindly  and  so  long.  But  I  am  shaken,  I  tell 
you." 

"  Why,  that's  all  nonsense,  Karl,  wildest  nonsense. 
Are  you  going  to  take  all  the  insanities  of  humanity  on 
your  shoulders  because  you  have  been  trying  to  be  a  good 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  3 1  I 

foster-mother  to  its  deserted  children  ?  You're  morbid, 
Karl.  You're  not  yourself.  I  tell  you,  I'm  thankful  to 
your  enthusiastic  followers, — though  it  is  you,  not  I,  that 
dub  them  your  followers." 

"  They  were.     It  was  I  that  led  them  on  to  their  work." 

"  You  just  said  you  had  not  been  at  Hereward  for  two 
weeks." 

"  I  have  not,"  Bahrdt  answered,  with  a  sudden  contrac 
tion  of  the  eyes,  like  a  flashing  pain.  "  That — was  an 
other  of  my  blunders.  Fool,  fool  and  blind,  that  I  have 
been  !  "  He  clenched  his  hands  and  threw  back  his  head 
with  a  despairing  scorn  of  himself  that  made  Paul  fear 
something  worse  than  he  yet  knew. 

"  Karl  !  "  He  shook  his  arm.  "  I  swear  you  are  out  of 
your  head.  Come  and  have  lunch  with  me,  and  recover 
your  senses." 

"  No.  I  am  going  down  to  Hereward  by  the  next  train. 
But  first  I  must  see  Miss  Mabie." 

"Oh,"  said  Paul  calmly,  though  his  blood  bounded  at 
the  name.  "  Well  !  I  suppose  I  ought  to  go  down  to 
Hereward  with  you  to  see  just  how  things  stand,  and  how 
near  I  have  come  to  beggary.  I'll  meet  you  after  you 
have  arranged  with — about  your  paper.  So  long  as  you 
have  that  to  give  you  an  interest  in  life,  old  man,  you 
needn't  look  so  tragic." 

"  I  shall  have  it  no  longer." 

"  Why  ? " 

"  I  would  like  to  break  the  press  that  printed  it." 

"  Recklessly  wasteful.  It  will  bring  a  good  price  in  the 
second-hand  market." 

"  You  do  not  understand  that  it  was  the  last  number  of 
'Justice  '  that  lit  the  fires  under  your  factory." 

"  For  a  fact?  Well,  I  just  told  you  that  I  am  resigned 
now  and  prepared  to  rejoice  to-morrow,  so  that  is  all  in 
harmony  with  your  role  of  benefactor  of  humanity." 


312  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"Have  you  no  realization  then,  of  what  this  means? 
Because  you,  in  your  own  little  case,  are  benefited  by  the 
explosion,  do  you  not  see  that  it  means  something  more, 
— something  as  regards  the  nature  of  explosives  ?  And 
that  a  man  who  has  been  mixing  the  dynamite  may  well 
turn  pale  ?  Though  I  was  not  responsible,  truly,  for  the 
last  number." 

"  Who  was  ?  " 

"  Miss  Mabie." 

"  How  was  that  ?" 

"  She  wrote  the  leader  in  the  last  number,  and  they 
thought  it  was  mine,  so  the  man  who  came  up  told  me.  I 
might  have  written  such  a  thing,  perhaps.  I  have  written 
even  more  passionately,  I  admit.  But  as  it  happened,  they 
thought  it  was  mine,  and  they  used  my  name  to  carry  their 
own  plans,  against  the  more  conservative,  and  this  wild 
deed  lies  at  the  door  of  '  Justice.'  " 

Paul's  fair  face  flushed  and  paled  rapidly,  and  a  queer 
look  came  into  his  eyes. 

"  So  Miss  Mabie  has  been  playing  socialist  in  your 
place,  and  she  is  then  responsible  for  my  most  lament 
able  reduction  to  penury  ?  Humph  !  I'd  like  to  read 
that  editorial." 

"  It  shall  be  the  last." 

"  What  are  you  going  to  do  ?  " 

"  I  told  you.  Stop  the  paper.  It  has  done  its  work. 
And  I  am  going  to  make  that  girl  understand  what  she 
has  done." 

"  No,  you  won't,  Karl.  You  are  going  to  stay  here 
until  it  is  time  to  take  that  train." 

"Do  you  think  I  will  risk  it  again?  I  tell  you  I  am 
grown  timid.  I  do  not  know  what  I  shall  do,  but  that  I 
shall  stop  the  paper,  and  destroy  every  copy  that  I  can 
find  and  put  an  end  to  this  part  of  my  life  is  certain.  I 
cannot  rest  until  I  know  that  there  is  no  chance  for  more 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  3  I  3 

harm  to  come  through  it.  I  want  to  see  it  stamped 
out." 

"  All  right.     I'll  tell  Miss  Mabie  so." 

"  I  shall  tell  her." 

"  No,  I'm  going  to  do  it  for  you.  While  I  am  on  that 
mission  you  will  go  out  and  get  something  to  eat.  It  isn't 
at  all  flattering  and  you  probably  won't  like  to  have  me 
tell  you,  but  your  mad  disgust  with  things  in  general  isn't 
all  spiritual  travail  or  even  mental  exhaustion.  It  is 
chiefly  physical  hunger,  my  friend,  and  a  chop  will  miti 
gate  the  blue  hue  that  the  universe  wears  by  several  de 
grees.  Then  I'll  meet  you  at  the  depot  and  we'll  go  down 
to  Hereward  together  and  inspect  the  remains." 

"  I  cannot  let  you  attend  to  my  work " 

"  And  I  cannot  let  you  attend  to  mine.  Your  message 
to  Miss  Mabie  is  that  editorial  activity  on  "  Justice  "  is  to  be 
^suspended  until  further  advice  from  the  founder  and  pub 
lisher.  Anything  else  ?" 

"  No.     But  I  wish— 

"  And  I  insist,"  Paul  interrupted,  dropping  his  banter 
ing  tone  and  speaking  with  that  fine  directness  which  al 
ways  carried  its  way.  "  I  have  something  to  say  to  her, 
too,  and — there  isn't  much  time." 

"  Well, — "  Bahrdt  yielded.  He  was  nearer  a  state  of 
mental  and  physical  exhaustion  than  he  had  ever  known 
before,  or  Paul  might  have  had  more  trouble  with  him. 

And  Paul  went  on  his  way  to  the  house  where  Joyce 
was  staying  with  a  wellspring  of  joy  in  his  heart.  His 
fortune,  or  at  least  that  unassimilated  part  of  it  which 
had  come  from  his  uncle,  had  gone  up  in  smoke,  but  that 
didn't  matter.  The  weight  that  had  been  oppressing  him 
had  gone  too,  and  there  was  left  in  its  place  a  swelling 
sense  of  security  and  triumph,  which  made  him  so  sure  of 
the  end  that  he  could  afford  to  wait,  and  smile  over  the 
waiting. 


314  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

He  was  ushered  into  the  common  parlor  of  the  board 
ing  house  and  waited  impatiently  while  his  card  was 
taken  up.  It  was  not  a  room  to  wax  enthusiastic  over, 
but  the  abominations  in  horse-hair  upholstery  that  fur 
nished  the  room  assumed  a  certain  grace  and  interest 
since  she  frequented  the  place.  And  then  she  came,  pale 
and  heavy-eyed  and  singularly  fair  in  her  black  dress. 
She  looked  so  wistful,  so  childlike,  so  pathetic,  that  all  his 
impulse  to  triumph  over  her  vanished  and  though  some 
thing  made  his  voice  dangerously  tender,  he  decided 
swiftly  that  he  would  say  nothing  here  or  now  to  shake 
her.  There  would  be  a  time —  But  now  she  must  be 
soothed,  child  that  she  was.  He  was  holding  her  hand 
and  smiling  into  her  startled  eyes,  and  then  he  said,  as 
quietly  as  though  there  had  never  been  any  strain  be 
tween  them, 

"  Karl  came  up  from  Hereward  to-day, — no,  I  believe 
he  said  he  did  not  come  directly  from  there, — but  at  any 
rate  he  brought  me  word  that  the  Rodman  Works  were 
burned  last  night." 

"  Burned  ?  Oh  ! "  she  cried  with  a  sudden  dis 
may. 

"  Oh,  I  don't  know  but  what  it  is  a  blessing  disguised, 
and  not  very  much  disguised  either, — nothing  more  than 
a  half-mask,  at  any  rate.  I  don't  mind  confessing,  now 
that  I  am  out  of  it,  that  I  wasn't  much  of  a  success  as  a 
capitalist,  and  I  don't  think  I  shall  ever  make  a  second 
attempt  in  that  direction.  Do  you  remember  I  told 
you  once  that  I  held  you  responsible  for  my  attempt,  and 
that  if  I  went  out  like  a  bad  fire-cracker,  I  should  remind 
you  who  threw  me  ?" 

"Yes,"  she  said,  smiling  faintly. 

"  Well,  I  want  to  take  that  all  back.  You  were  not  re 
sponsible  for  my  decision  at  all.  I  wanted  to  associate 
you  with  it,  but — really  it  was  something  that  Baily  told 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  315 

me  about  the  way  things  had  been  run  in  my  uncle's  time 
that  made  me  determine  to  take  it  up." 

"  I  ought  to  have  known,"  she  said,  a  swift  flush  sweep 
ing  over  her  pale  face.  "  I  was  foolish  to  think  that  my 
words  could  ever  have  any  weight." 

"  Sometimes  they  do,"  he  said  sweetly.  "  That  last  ed 
itorial  of  yours,  for  instance.  By  the  way,  I  haven't  seen 
it  yet.  Will  you  give  me  a  copy  ?  " 

"  Of  course,  if  you  want  it,"  she  said,  surprised,  but 
frank.  "  I  will  have  a  copy  mailed  to  you  to-morrow." 

"  I  would  rather  have  you  give  it  to  me  now.  You  have 
a  copy  here,  haven't  you  ?  " 

"Yes,"  she  admitted. 

"  And  you  will  give  it  to  me  ? " 

She  rose  and  crossed  the  room  to  a  table  where  a  pile  of 
miscellaneous  papers  had  been  thrown  together  and  se 
lected  one  for  him. 

"  Thanks,"  he  said,  as  he  took  it  from  her  hand.  She  had 
thought  he  meant  to  read  it  now,  but  he  folded  the  paper 
and  put  it  in  his  breast-pocket  without  taking  his  eyes 
from  her  face.  Then  he  said,  in  a  different  manner, 

"  Joyce,  whatever  there  is  before  us  in  the  future,  there 
must  be  simple  truth  between  us,  absolute  and  undisguised. 
For  this  reason  I  wished  to  be  the  one  to  tell  you  that 
this  paper  of  yours  was  taken  very  seriously  and  had 
great  weight  with  the  Hereward  strikers.  Bahrdt  says, 
— though  of  this  I  am  not  at  all  sure, — that  it  helped  to 
stir  them  up  to  that  last  insanity  of  setting  fire  to  the 
Works." 

She  was  staring  at  him  with  a  bewildered  look,  and  he 
put  his  hand  upon  hers  as  they  fell  clasped  before  her. 

"You  would  be  sure  to  hear  it  somehow,  so  I  wanted 
to  tell  you,  and  to  tell  you,  too,  that  it  makes  no  differ 
ence  even  if  it  is  true.  Or  rather  that  it  is  something 
that  I  am  glad  of,  not  sorry  for,  for  I  truly  think  that  it 


316  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

has  brought  the  day  of  deliverance  that  Karl  talks  about 
to  me, — deliverance  from  my  own  misjudgment  of  my 
work  and  my  ability." 

"  But — do  you  mean — that  I — that  that  thing  I  wrote — 
brought  about —  ?  "  she  gasped. 

"  I  don't  know  whether  it  had  anything  to  do  with  it. 
Bahrdt  thinks  so,  but  he  may  be  dreaming.  He  wants 
the  paper  stopped,  for  the  present.  That  is  the  message 
I  was  to  bring  to  you.  I  suppose  you  will  hear  from  him 
more  in  detail,  but  just  now  I  am  going  to  carry  him 
down  to  see  what  must  be  done  at  Hereward." 

"But  burnt  !     What  will  the  men  do  now  ? " 

"  I  confess  I  haven't  considered  that  yet.  Do  you 
think  I  ought  to  start  a  coffee-house  to  relieve  any  imme 
diate  distress  ?  " 

"  And  that  I  did  it  !  " 

"  The  evidence  isn't  all  in  yet.  Don't  take  too  much 
credit." 

«  What— will  you  do  ?  " 

"  Go  down  by  the  first  train.  It  isn't  often  in  a  life 
time  that  one  has  so  good  a  chance  of  verifying  for  one 
self  what  the  philosophers  have  said  about  the  fleeting 
character  of  wealth.  I  am  no  longer  Rodman  of  Rodman 
Works,  but  plain  Paul  Rodman,  looking  for  a  job  !  " 

"  You  can  jest  about  it !     I — I  have  ruined  you  !  " 

"  So  you  think  I  am  worthless  now  ?  I  protest.  There 
is  nothing  ruined  but  the  building  and  the  machinery, 
and  they  were  old-fashioned,  I  understand, — not  worth 
much  insurance,  even.  No  ;  I  confess  I  would  rather 
like  to  have  you  feel  that  the  only  thing  you  could  do  in 
reparation  would  be  to  take  my  ruined  life  and  bind  it  up 
and  set  it  going  again,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact,  I  think 
your  achievement  has  been  in  the  direction  of  freeing  me. 
Perhaps  the  responsibility  is  just  as  great."  But  he  felt 
that  he  was  getting  among  quicksands  here,  and  abruptly 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  317 

pulled  out  his  watch.  "  I'm  going  to  meet  Karl  and  take 
him  down  with  me.  Good-bye.  Keep  a  good  heart." 

He  did  not  take  her  hand  this  time,  but  got  himself 
away  as  quickly  as  possible.  Joyce  sank  into  a  chair, 
trembling  and  unnerved.  She  had  to  make  an  effort  to 
realize  what  it  was  that  he  had  told  her.  The  Works 
were  burnt,  Paul's  property  destroyed,  their  dreams  of 
achieving  the  ideal  shattered, — and  it  was  all  her  work. 
She  tried  to  picture  to  herself  the  ruins  as  they  must  look, 
the  loss  and  the  suffering  that  would  follow,  and,  hardest 
of  all,  to  understand  how  she  could  be  responsible  for  it. 
Thoughts  and  fragments  of  sentences  she  had  used  in 
that  editorial  were  still  in  her  memory  and  they  started 
out  in  vivid  colors.  Feverishly  she  hunted  up  a  copy  and 
tried  to  read  it  herself,  but  after  a  few  paragraphs  she 
flung  it  from  her  and  broke  into  a  passion  of  sobbing. 
Was  this  what  came  of  pulling  the  strings  of  public 
affairs  ?  Was  this  the  fruit  of  her  high  enthusiasm  for 
benefiting  humanity  ?  Tested  by  the  outcome,  every 
thing  had  a  different  aspect. 

Her  brain  ached,  but  she  could  not  stop  the  thinking. 
She  heard  the  people  coming  and  going  in  the  house,  but 
she  was  alone,  and  for  the  first  time  in  her  life  she  felt 
the  need  of  being  comforted  without  argument  or  justifi 
cation.  She  wanted  relief  from  the  thought  that  kept 
before  her  mind  whichever  way  she  turned.  If  only  Dru 
were  here  !  She  sprang  up  suddenly  and  brushed  the 
tears  from  her  eyes  to  examine  a  time-table.  There  was 
a  late  train  to  Hereward, — late,  but  it  would  get  in  before 
midnight.  Dru  would  be  up,  and  Dru  would  be  good  to 
her.  She  flung  her  theories  to  the  winds,  dressed  herself 
with  trembling  haste,  and  found  her  way  to  the  station, 
just  in  time  to  take  the  outgoing  train.  There  was  relief 
in  action.  As  she  fled  through  the  night  she  felt  that  she 
was  leaving  far  behind  the  shadow  that  the  city  had  cast 


3l8  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

upon  her  life.  Before  her  was  Hereward,  and  she 
reached  out  toward  it  in  thought  with  a  passionate  long 
ing  for  the  restfulness  it  had  held  for  her. 

The  well-known  streets  were  dark  when  she  reached 
the  little  town,  but  there  was  a  soft  friendliness  in  their 
quiet  that  was  like  an  old  welcome.  And  the  lights  were 
burning  in  Dru's  house  when  she  slipped  through  the  dim 
garden  and  pushed  open  the  unfastened  door. 

If  Drusilla's  tender  heart  had  ever  been  grieved  by  her 
friend's  self-poised  calm,  which  sometimes  had  the  sem 
blance  of  coldness,  she  had  her  dear  revenge  in  that  hour, 
for,  after  the  first  passionate  outburst  which  was  hardly 
an  explanation,  Joyce  clung  to  her  in  a  quiver  of  grief 
and  humility,  and  Dru  comforted  her  to  her  own  sweet 
heart's  content. 


XXXIV. 

PAUL  walked  about  the  ruins,  surveying  the  wrecks  of 
his  financial  greatness  with  a  cheerfulness  that  would 
have  been  most  praiseworthy  if  there  had  been  any  effort 
in  it  for  him. 

The  debris  was  still  smouldering,  though  it  was  the 
second  day  after  the  fire,  and  the  one  fire-engine  of  the 
town  was  still  on  the  spot,  making  the  most  of  its  oppor 
tunities.  It  wasn't  often  that  Hereward  had  a  genuine 
sensation.  The  entire  population  had  been  around  to 
look  at  the  wreck,  and  some  of  the  workmen  with  their 
families,  who  had  drawn  the  means  whereby  they  lived 
from  that  building  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  still  stood 
by  in  groups,  dumb  and  anxious  at  heart. 

There  were  a  thousand  things  for  Paul  to  do  and  as 
many  men  to  see.  There  were  the  insurance  men  and 
appraisers  and  salesmen  and  contractors  and  representa" 
tires  of  the  press  to  give  audience  to  and  dispose  of.  He 
found  himself  answering  questions  all  day.  No,  he  did 
not  care  to  contract  for  supplies  just  yet,  if  they  pleased. 
The  Works  would  probably  not  be  rebuilt.  He  did  not 
mean  to  prosecute.  That  was  the  state's  affair,  if  it 
wanted  to  take  it  up.  He  didn't  know  whether  he  would 
have  the  ruins  pulled  down  and  the  land  sold,  and  he 
wasn't  prepared  to  express  any  opinion  as  to  the  relations 
between  capital  and  labor  ;  in  fact,  didn't  know  anything 
about  them.  Just  why  that  should  prevent  his  expressing 
himself  was  not  entirely  clear,  but  the  reporters  were 
obliged  to  depart  and  draw  as  best  they  could  from  their 


320  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

reserve  fund  of  imagination.  He  felt  that  he  was  wind 
ing  up  his  meteoric  career  as  a  man  of  affairs,  and  he  dis 
posed  of  the  various  issues  that  came  up  with  a  prompt 
ness  and  aplomb  that  inspired  those  about  him  with  a  new 
quality  of  respect.  They  had  never  suspected  that  Rod 
man  possessed  such  business  qualifications  ! 

But  he  freed  himself  at  last,  and  hurried  around  for  a 
hasty  call  upon  Mrs.  Hamill. 

"  How  does  it  feel  to  be  a  person  of  importance  ? "  that 
small  woman  asked  mockingly  as  she  greeted  him. 
"  Really  and  truly  a  personage,  with  things  happening  to 
you  !  Doesn't  it  seem  kind  of  queer  to  have  things 
really  happen  ?  Generally  we  have  to  pretend,  and  make 
a  great  fuss  over  the  trifles  of  life,  so  that  the  days  won't 
seem  empty, — like  children  playing  house.  But  to 
actually  be  the  center  of  a  whirlwind  !  How  does  it  affect 
you  ?  Are  you  set  up  in  your  mind  ? " 

"Set  up  in  my  mind  ?  I  am  a  ruined  man,  madam  !  Is 
this  the  tone  in  which  you  meet  a  bankrupt  ?  You  don't 
in  the  least  realize  that  bankruptcy  is  a  solemn  busi 
ness." 

"  You  don't  look  solemn.  I  saw  that  when  you  came 
into  the  room  !  What  right  have  you  to  be  flaunting  your 
light-heartedness  in  our  faces  in  this  way?  " 

"  Oh,  I  have  been  talking  business  all  clay,  which  natur 
ally  makes  me  happy.  And  I  am  seldom  if  ever  going  to 
do  so  again,  which  makes  me  happier  still." 

"  What  are  you  going  to  do  ?  " 

"  I  am  going  to  shake  off  the  dust  of  the  Rodman  Works 
forever,  and  I  am  going  to  take  the  natural  science  chair 
at  the  University  at  Allentown.  They  wrote  me  a  while 
ago,  asking  me  to  reconsider  my  refusal,  so  you  see  the 
winds  are  tempered  to  this  particular  lamb." 

"  Oh,  I  am  so  glad.     May  I  tell  Joyce  ?  " 

"  Yes,  certainly."     He  brightened   at  the  name  like  a 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  321 

boy.     "  Though  as  I  am  going  back  to  town   to-morrow, 
I  may  see  her  first." 

"  Joyce  is  here,"  she  said  demurely,  looking  away  and 
pretending  she  didn't  see  his  look  of  amazement.  "  She 
will  be  so  pleased.  It  is  just  what  you  always  wanted, 
and  it  will  give  you  a  chance  to  go  on  with  your  work, 


"  Is  she  here  ?     In  this  house  ? " 

"Yes,"  she  yielded.  Then  when  she  met  his  eyes  she 
had  to  add  another  morsel.  "  She  came  down  by  the  late 
train  last  night." 

"  I  hope  she  is  well,"  he  said  with  a  sudden  fear. 

"She  is  tired  and  overwrought,  that  is  all.  I  made  her 
lie  down,  and  I  don't  think  I  shall  allow  her  to  be  dis 
turbed.  Mr.  Rodman,  do  tell  me,  what  about  her 
father  ? " 

"  I  don't  know.  Nobody  seems  to  know  anything. 
The  Grand  Jury  meets  Monday.  I  am  going  up  to-mor 
row  so  as  to  be  there.  I  suppose  he  will  be  committed  for 
trial,  as  nothing  new  has  developed  in  the  case." 

"  Must  Joyce  go  up  ?  " 

"  Better  not  to,  if  you  can  keep  her  here.  She  isn't 
going  to  break  down  now,  after  all,  is  s,he  ?  " 

"  Oh,  I  hope  not,"  said  Dru,  with  tempered  reassurance. 
She  believed  too  devoutly  in  the  traditions  of  heart-affairs 
to  lighten  his  anxiety  one  iota  more  than  the  exigencies 
of  truth  imperatively  demanded.  "If  I  can  keep  her 
quiet,  that  will  be  the  best  thing  for  her.  She  needs  some 
one  to  take  care  of  her,  that's  the  fact  of  it." 

"  How  good  you  are,"  he  said  gently,  lifting  her  fingers 
to  his  lips. 

"  When  are  you  to  be  installed  ?  " 

"  Oh,  the  regents  are  probably  standing  around  the 
street  corners  now,  waiting  for  me  to  come  and  set  the 
wheels  moving.  I  shall  write  this  evening  and  inti- 


322  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

mate  that  I  have  yielded  to  their  eloquent  persuasion. 
You  don't  think  it  is  imperatively  necessary  that  I  should 
mention  that  the  Works  are  burnt  and  that  I  am  thrown 
on  a  cold  world  alone,  do  you  ?  They  might  take  advan 
tage  of  my  need  to  cut  down  the  accompanying  financial 
consideration." 

"  Ah,  your  business  experience  is  not  without  fruit !  " 

"  By  the  way,  don't  you  think  that  a  University  town 
would  strike  Joyce  as  a  particularly  good  field  for  her 
efforts?  I  want  her  to  like  the  Allentown  project." 

"  Oh,  she  doesn't  want  any  field.  She  is  sick  of  the 
very  name  of  a  mission.  She  will  never  do  anything  of 
that  sort  again." 

He  tried  to  look  properly  impressed  by  her  vehement 
assertions,  but  when  he  lifted  his  eyes  the  light  of  a  quiz 
zical  smile  broke  out  in  spite  of  him. 

"  Did  she  tell  you  all  that  ?  And  do  you  believe  it  ? 
You  needn't  mention  the  fact  to  her,  but  I  don't !  She 
may  think  just  now  that  she  will  consent  to  be  dumb  for 
the  rest  of  her  days,  but  that  is  because  she  has  been  over 
taxed.  When  she  recovers  her  natural  tone,  she  will  feel 
the  call  to  'bear  witness  '  again.  It  is  the  deepest spart  of 
her  nature,  and  if  I  am  to  be  permitted  to  say  anything  on 
the  question  she  shall  not  lose  faith  in  her  ideals  or  in  her 
self  because  of  what  has  happened.  It  is  as  much  a  neces 
sity  for  her  to  work  actively  in  the  realm  of  ethics  as  it 
is  for  me  to  work  in  the  realm  of  physics.  She  will  never 
be  happy  unless  she  is  able  to  do  something  in  the  larger 
way  for  the  good  of  her  fellow-beings.  To  shut  up  her 
interests  in  herself  or  in  one  household,  would  mean  suffo 
cation,  mentally  and  morally,  for  her.  But  at  the  same 
time,  I  think  perhaps  she  knows  more  about  the  prin 
ciples  of  higher  living  than  she  does  about  the  labor 
problem,  and  if  you  could  happen  to  remark,  incidentally 
but  frequently,  what  an  enormous  influence  for  good  the 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  323 

wife  of  a  professor  could  have  upon  the  serried  ranks  of 
raw  material  that  come  up  fresh  every  year  for  impres 
sions  to  carry  away  and  disseminate  in  the  world  after 
ward,  it  might  prepare  the  ground,  so  to  speak — 

There  were  tears  glistening  on  Mrs.  Hamill's  lashes  as 
she  impulsively  put  out  her  hand. 

"  I  didn  t  mean  to  tell  you,  but  I  can't  help  it.  I  think 
you  have  prepared  the  ground  pretty  well  yourself." 

And  then  she  made  him  go. 


XXXV. 

KARL  BAHRDT  found  the  experience  of  that  day  a  bitter 
one,  though  his  stern  will  did  not  allow  him  to  spare 
himself  a  jot.  He  came  back  to  Hereward  with  the  feel 
ing  that  his  dead  past  would  rise  and  look  at  him  from 
every  familiar  point  in  the  scene,  from  every  bend  in  the 
winding  road  where  they  had  walked  and  driven.  That 
Edith  was  not  there  was  the  only  boon  of  Fortune's  that 
he  was  willing  to  acknowledge.  He  was  glad  it  was  not 
demanded  that  he  should  try  his  strength  by  looking 
upon  her  face. 

He  spent  the  forenoon  in  hot  debate  with  the  exec 
utive  committee  of  the  operatives.  They  were  in 
clined  to  defend  their  action  on  general  grounds,  even 
while  admitting  that  in  this  case  it  might  have  been 
based  upon  a  misapprehension.  But  if  the  reports  on 
which  they  had  acted  had  been  true,  and  Rodman  had 
been  about  to  bring  down  an  outside  force  to  man  the 
Works,  then,  in  the  name  of  labor  and  organization,  what 
would  there  have  been  to  regret  or  retract  ?  He  recog 
nized  some  of  his  own  phrases  and  arguments,  turned 
now  against  him  to  meet  the  demands  of  their  emergency, 
and  he  laughed  bitterly  at  the  idea  that  this  was  all  he 
had  proved  in  the  end.  Had  he  thought  he  was  talking 
to  casuists  and  philosophers  ?  Had  he  thought  that  be 
cause  they  had  suffered  wrong  they  would  have  no  im 
pulse  to  deal  out  wrong  ?  He  had  talked  to  them  on  the 
broad  basis  of  humanity,  and  they  had  answered  him  in 
deeds  from  the  standpoint  of  personal  ends. 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  325 

He  flung  away  at  last,  hot  and  bitter  and  in  a  mood  to 
forswear  his  whole  life's  work.  The  peaceful  little  village 
seemed  to  mock  him  with  its  dispassion.  Here  was  peace 
and  he  had  brought  discord.  Even  to  her, — to  Edith, — 
he  had  brought  nothing  but  bitterness.  His  touch 
wrought  nothing  but  ruin.  He  went  down  to  see  the 
Works.  There  were  knots  of  people  everywhere,  but  the 
groups  were  apt  to  fall  apart  as  he  approached.  Strikers 
and  citizens  alike  watched  him  curiously,  but  kept  aloof. 
If  he  noticed  it,  his  saturnine  countenance  betrayed  noth 
ing.  He  tramped  over  the  blackened  and  scattered  tim 
bers  to  the  old  doorway,  and  looked  in.  The  walls  were 
still  partially  in  place,  but  the  interior  had  been  burnt  out 
and  a  mass  of  twisted  iron  at  the  bottom  of  the  debris 
was  all  that  remained  of  the  heavy  machinery.  The  win 
dows  were  gaps  in  the  wall  and  nothing  more.  He 
looked  at  it  grimly  and  with  the  end  of  a  charred  stick  he 
wrote  on  the  door  post,  "  Karl  Bahrdt,  his  mark." 

"  You  see  we  don't  stagnate  in  your  absence,"  said  a 
voice.  Prof.  Hamill  was  picking  his  way  toward  him, 
with  an  air  of  boyish  exhilaration.  He  had  caught  sight 
of  Bahrdt,  for  whom  he  had  always  had  a  fancy,  and  had 
crossed  over  to  him  at  once.  "  I  wish  I  had  been  awake 
when  it  happened.  I  would  have  liked  to  see  the  flames 
burst  through  the  roof.  The  old  buildings  had  a  glorious 
funeral  pyre." 

"  It  was  a  funeral  pyre  for  more  than  the  buildings," 
said  Bahrdt.  He  scratched  over  the  markings  he  had 
made  on  the  door-post  and  set  his  shoulder  against  it. 

"  You  mean  Rodman's  prospects  ?  He  has  been  so  busy 
I  have  only  had  a  glimpse  of  him,  but  he  seems  philosoph 
ically  inclined." 

Bahrdt  nodded.  He  was  not  wholly  in  sympathy  with 
Rodman's  attitude.  "  He  has  the  good  fortune  to  be 
blessed  with  an  easy  temper." 


326  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

"  His  fortune  would  have  been  better  if  all  our  friends 
had  been  blessed  in  the  same  way." 

"  Do  you  mean  this  piece  of  work  ?  This  signifies  little, 
one  way  or  the  other." 

"  No  ?  "  said  Hamill,  thrusting  his  hands  into  the  pock 
ets  of  his  loose  coat  and  throwing  back  his  head  to  view 
the  thing  artistically.  "  No  ?  Now  it  seems  to  me  that 
it  does.  That  is  one  of  the  advantages  that  we  non-com 
batants  have  over  you  men  who  go  into  the  thick 
of  the  fight.  We  stand  off  and  see  how  the  tide  of 
battle  flows  and  flatter  ourselves  that  we  gather  more 
facts  to  support  our  little  theories  than  you  can.  You 
have  faith  enough  in  your  theories  to  act  upon  them,  to 
be  sure,  which  we  haven't,  as  a  general  thing.  But  then 
we  have  the  consolation  of  seeing  that  people  who  act  are 
covered  with  mud  while  we  keep  comparatively  clean. 
There  we  have  the  advantage  of  you  again.  Then  you 
are  enthusiasts.  Perhaps  you  don't  properly  appreciate 
the  stigma  that  attaches  to  enthusiasm, — particularly  to 
enthusiasm  that  tries  to  work  itself  out, — in  the  minds  of 
us  critics  who  keep  out  of  the  turmoil  in  order  that  we 
may  tell  you  where  you  have  missed  it." 

"We  can  see  that  ourselves,  after  it  is  over,"  said 
Bahrdt  gloomily.  "  You  scoff  at  yourself,  but  there  is  lit 
tle  need  for  that.  We  enthusiasts  run  blind  often,  I  sup 
pose,  and  do  harm  where  we  did  not  mean  to  do  anything 
but  good." 

"Ah,  there  is  another  of  the  penalties  you  have  to  pay 
for  your  capacity  to  be  a  leader.  Yet  one  of  my  conclu 
sions,  as  an  irresponsible  observer,  would  be  that  the 
masses  need  nothing  so  much  as  a  leader,  so  at  least  you 
have  the  consolation  of  considering  that  you  are  useful  in 
your  place.  The  masses  are  the  raw  material  of  human 
ity,  and  when  you  take  away  the  co-ordinating  power  of 
superior  intelligence,  the  muscles  may  go  into  convulsions 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  327 

of  activity  and  the  limbs  kick  and  the  jaws  work  with  vi 
cious  energy,  but  there  isn't  really  much  healthy  life  in  it 
all.  Life  means  progression.  Progress  is  slow,  down  at 
the  beginning  of  the  evolutionary  process.  All  of  which 
means,  my  friend,  that  the  masses  need  a  mind  to  govern 
them,  so  you  might  as  well  go  in  and  sacrifice  yourself. 
It  also  proves  that  Homer  didn't  live  at  the  very  begin 
ning  of  the  world,  since  there  had  already  been  time  for 
him  to  draw  the  conclusion  that  the  worst  of  tyrants  is  a 
usurping  crowd." 

Bahrdt  had  thought,  fifteen  minutes  before,  that  he  was 
ready  to  throw  his  whole  cargo  of  socialistic  ideas  over 
board,  but  the  breath  of  argument  made  him  instinctively 
trim  his  sails  to  the  course  again. 

"  But  this  mass,  of  which  you  speak  so  easily,  is  made 
up  of  individuals,  and  each  individual  is  just  as  much  a 
man  as  any  of  those  who  have  risen  far  enough  to  look 
over  the  heads  of  their  fellows  and  see  them  as  a  mass." 

"  Perhaps, — and  perhaps  not.  One  of  the  attributes  of 
manhood  is  judgment.  Don't  you  think  yourself  it  was — 
well,  say  hasty, — for  these  ardent  followers  of  your  gospel 
to  burn  down  the  Works  ?  They  served  the  useful  pur 
pose  of  providing  these  same  malcontents  with  the  means 
of  earning  a  living.  In  so  much,  they  were  almost  as 
good  as  a  public  institution.  That  is  something  the  men 
overlooked,  in  their  zeal.  It  strikes  me  they  were  a  bit 
hasty,  and  not  absolutely  just." 

"Why  do  you  expect  absolute  justice  of  them?  It 
would  be  well  if  they  were  possessed  of  wisdom  and  mod 
eration,  undoubtedly,  but  they  have  been  kept  in  tutelage 
too  long  to  permit  these  powers  to  develop.  They  will 
make  mistakes,  they  will  work  injustice,  they  will  strike 
down  friends  in  place  of  foes.  But  I  hardly  think  they 
will  do  as  much  wrong  as  they  and  their  ancestors  have 
suffered.  They  are  timid  from  long  oppression,  and  they 


328  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTIXY. 

have  not  the  sublime  audacity  of  their  long-time  masters. 
You  make  a  mistake  when  you  measure  one  event  like 
this.  If  the  ignorant  classes, — ignorant  because  crushed, 
— overstep  the  lines  of  just  demand,  you  are  ready  to  cry 
out.  But  it  is  inevitable  that  they  should.  Not  right, 
but  inevitable.  You  forget  the  pendulum's  swing. 
Things  have  gone  wrong  so  long  that  they  must  go  wrong 
longer  before  they  can  settle  down  to  equilibrium." 

"  And  equilibrium  isn't  in  sight,  even  !  My  friend,  you 
have  a  risky  position  if  you  are  going  to  sit  on  the  box 
seat  and  guide  the  team  of  Progress  and  Evolution.  They 
have  a  good  pull  !  I  think  I  am  wiser  to  sit  'back  and 
watch  you  doing  it.  ' 

"  But  I  am  whipped  with  scorpions  when  I  rest  idle," 
cried  Bahrdt  vehemently.  "  How  can  I  hold  my  hand 
when  I  see  how  things  go  ?  It  drives  me  to  frenzy,  and  I 
feel  like  Samson  when  he  clutched  the  pillars  and  felt 
them  bend  under  the  power  of  his  arms.  What  matter  if 
he  were  crushed  in  the  fall  ?  The  place  was  a  place  of 
abomination,  and  his  work  was  to  throw  it  down.  So  the 
blinded  Samson  of  to-day  will  throw  his  weight,  without 
ruth  for  himself  or  for  others,  upon  the  pillars  that  uphold 
the  edifice  of  modern  injustice.  When  the  dust  clears 
away  the  plain  will  be  clear  for  a  new  structure  to  rise 
over  the  bones  of  the  self-immolated  giant." 

"  What  guarantee  have  you  that  the  new  structure 
will  be  any  better  ?  "  asked  the  Professor.  "  The  same 
sort  of  people  would  have  to  build  it,  and  they  would 
probably  build  it  in  the  same  way,  unless  they  saw  where 
the  fault  lay  in  the  first  design.  That  perhaps  is  the  point 
where  we  take  different  views.  What  you  call  the  poorer 
classes  are  not  the  only  ones  that  suffer  unjustly,  not  the 
only  ones  that  are  ignorant  and  narrow,  and  to  be  pitied 
for  that  reason.  There  are  people  who  never  lacked  a 
meal  whose  lives  are  yet  poverty-stricken,  unlovely,  the 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  329 

lives  of  slaves.  The  same  discontent,  the  same  bitter 
ness  and  grasping,  the  same  barrenness,  runs  through 
stratum  after  stratum  of  society,  and  I  am  not  sure  that 
those  who  suspect  their  poverty  least  are  not  the  most  to 
be  pitied." 

"  These  are  theoretic  wants  and  ideal  pangs.  They  are 
not  real,  like  the  pangs  of  hunger." 

"  Do  you  think  not  ?  Then  you  would  name  the  physi 
cal  needs  of  man  as  the  most  vital,  and  conclude  that  he 
who  is  best  fed  and  clothed  has  best  achieved  the  end  of 
his  existence.  It  hardly  seems  to  me  that  the  long  climb 
of  the  race  has  been  worth  while  if  it  is  to  be  crowned  by 
a  well-kept  animal." 

Bahrdt  knit  his  black  brows. 

"  What  you  say  may  be  true  from  your  plane  of  thought, 
but  it  would  be  absolutely  false  to  these  men,  because  to 
them  their  animal  needs  are  the  highest,  and  they  are  so 
because  their  growth  has  been  unfairly  stunted.  See  that 
they  have  enough  to  eat  and  then  preach  to  them  the 
ethics  of  higher  living." 

"  It  is  impossible  to  preach  that  to  any  class  which 
ranks  the  lower  living  as  the  higher.  They  must  see  that 
the  ethics  of  the  higher  living  are  beautiful  before  they 
will  strive  very  hard  to  attain  them." 

" And  that  they  cannot  see  because  they  have  been 
robbed  in  the  past." 

"  None  of  them  see  it,"  the  Professor  said  mournfuliy. 
"  The  difference  between  us  is  that  you  arraign  the 
wealthy  classes  for  defrauding  the  poorer,  and  I  arraign 
them  all  for  defrauding  themselves.  Their  standards  are 
wrong,  and  their  lives  cannot  rise  above  that  level." 

"And  the  day  of  deliverance  will  never  come  until  jus 
tice  is  done  the  disfranchised." 

"The  day  of  deliverance  will  never  come,"  said  the 
Professor  calmly,  "  till  men  see  that  money  does  not  re- 


330 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 


present  the  highest  attainable  good.  The  two  great  lacks 
of  the  world  at  present  are  comfort  of  body  and  peace  of 
mind.  The  first  lack  can  be  supplied  by  increase  of 
material  prosperity, — provided  the  fruits  are  scattered, 
not  accumulated.  The  second  lack  can  only  be  supplied 
by  the  moral  growth  of  the  people.  The  amount  of 
money  in  the  world  is  limited.  If  one  man  accumulates 
much,  some  one  else  is  deprived.  But  the  mine  open  to 
the  mind  and  the  spirit  is  inexhaustible.  The  more 
wealth  of  that  coinage  any  individual  accumulates,  the 
wealthier  is  each  and  every  one  of  his  fellowmen.  And  I 
incline  to  the  belief  that  a  world  where  the  material 
prosperity  was  raised  to  say  the  nth  power  and  the  moral 
tone  remained  at  its  present  level  would  be  less  of  a  suc 
cess,  cosmically  considered,  than  a  world  where  comfort 
of  body  remained  at  its  present  rather  unsatisfactory 
state  and  the  moral  tone  was,  conversely,  raised  to  the 
nth  power." 

"  If  the  moral  tone  were  raised,  the  present  material 
conditions  could  not  exist,"  put  in  Bahrdt. 

"  Thank  you,"  said  the  Professor  sweetly.  "  You  have 
capped  my  argument  for  me  better  than  I  could  have 
done  myself." 

They  had  walked  slowly  on  as  they  talked,  picking 
their  way  over  the  fallen  debris,  and  had  reached  the 
street  which  swept  around  the  Works  from  the  lower  part 
of  the  town  and  led  to  the  upper  bridge.  An  open  car 
riage  with  two  occupants  was  slowly  approaching. 
Bahrdt's  restless  eyes  fell  upon  them  first,  and  he  stopped 
so  abruptly  that  the  Professor,  too,  looked  up,  and  then 
discreetly  turned  for  another  look  at  the  ruins  they  had 
left. 

Edith  and  her  husband,  returning  from  their  shortened 
wedding  journey,  had  driven  around  on  their  way  up  from 
the  station,  to  see  the  town's  much  talked  of  wreck. 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  33! 

Hale's  face  was  as  impassive  as  ever,  but  Edith —  It 
needed  no  lover's  eye  to  see  that  something  had  fallen 
athwart  her  life.  She  leaned  back  with  indifferent  eyes 
and  drooping  lips,  so  cold,  so  still,  so  unmoved,  that  to 
look  upon  her  face  was  like  reading  a  sentence  of  doom. 
There  was  no  change  even  when  she  saw  her  old  friends. 
She  bowed  automatically,  and  then  the  carriage  moved 
slowly  on. 

The  two  men  walked  on,  but  Bahrdt's  head  was  bent 
and  his  lips  drawn  as  in  pain,  while  the  Professor  talked 
with  unwonted  fluency  and  irrelevancy  until  they  reached 
High  street. 

"  You  will  come  in  ? " 

"  Yes,"  Bahrdt  said,  rousing  himself.  "  I  hear  that 
Miss  Mabie  has  come  down  from  the  city.  She  is  with 
you  ? " 

"  Yes." 

"  I  wish  to  see  her  before  I   go  back.     I  will   come  in." 

Joyce  came  down  at  once,  and  if  he  was  struck  by  her 
weariness  and  pallor,  she  was  even  more  shocked  by  the 
marks  which  the  last  two  weeks  had  left  upon  his  face. 
There  was  a  hint  of  a  tragedy  which  she  did  not  under 
stand. 

"  Have  you  been  ill  ?  "  she  asked  anxiously.  "  Was 
that  why  we  heard  nothing  from  you  ?  " 

"  Oh,  I  am  well  enough,"  he  answered  with  the  ungra 
ciousness  of  a  man  to  whom  sympathy  is  unfamiliar.  "  I 
forgot  about  the  paper,  or  I  would  have  come  back  sooner 
or  sent  you  word." 

Joyce  blushed  and  her  eyes  fell.  The  paper  was  a  sore 
subject. 

"  Rodman  told  you  that  I  wished  work  stopped  on  the 
paper.  It  is  because  I  mean  to  stop  the  paper  itself.  I 
am  going  away  for  a  time,  and  there  is  no  one  to  take  it 
up  and  carry  it  on.  I  do  not  wish  it  to  go  on,  and  I  am 


332  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

bound  to  no  one  to  continue  it.  It  has  been  my  own 
affair  from  the  beginning.  I  will  arrange  with  some  other 
paper  to  take  my  subscription  list  and  fill  out  the  con 
tracted  subscriptions,  and  that  will  end  the  matter."  He 
looked  at  her  with  narrowed  eyes,  ready  to  flash  out  if 
she  betrayed  any  inclination  to  protest.  But  she  had 
been  too  well  trained  to  his  humors  to  show  any  surprise. 
Besides,  she  had  been  warned  by  Rodman's  words,  and 
she  was  glad  in  her  heart  to  have  the  very  memory  of 
her  work  on  "  Justice  "  wiped  out. 

"  Shall  I  send  you  what  papers  I  have  ?  "  she  asked 
quietly. 

"  No,  burn  them.  Let  there  be  an  end,"  he  said.  He 
was  relieved  by  her  way  of  taking  it,  and  he  threw  his 
head  back  against  his  chair  and  turned  to  look  at  her 
more  at  ease.  "  About  yourself.  What  will  you  do  ?  " 

"  Nothing,  till  after  Monday,"  she  said  in  a  very  low 
voice. 

He  sighed  heavily. 

"  So  it  is  again." 

He  fell  into  a  deep  musing,  and  she  did  not  speak.  She 
was  dismayed  to  see  how  worn  he  was.  When  he  spoke 
the  old  fire  flashed  out,  but  when  his  face  fell  into  re 
pose  it  was  drawn  and  gray  as  it  had  never  been  before-:. 
Yet  there  was  an  indefinable  hint  of  gentleness  in  it  that 
was  new,  too.  She  had  seen  it  when  he  asked  about  her 
own  plans,  and  again  at  the  reference  to  her  father. 
After  a  few  moments  he  roused  himself  and  smiled  to  find 
her  eyes  fixed  upon  him. 

"  Goethe  says  that  those  who  work  together,  like  those 
who  dance  together,  come  to  learn  each  other's  step.  We 
have  worked  together,  and  I  think  we  understand  each 
other  as  not  all  our  friends  do.  So  I  wish  to  say  some 
thing  to  you  before  I  say  farewell.  It  was  partly  because 
of  me  and  what  I  said  that  you  took  up  the  idea  of  social 
istic  writing,  was  it  not  ?  " 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  333 

"Yes,  certainly." 

"  When  I  say  that  I  shall  stop  the  issue  of  "  Justice,"  and 
that  I  shall  neither  speak  nor  write  again  until  I  find 
some  clearer  truth  to  guide  me  through  the  fog,  you  may 
guess  that  I  have  lost  some  of  my  old  faith.  It  may 
come  back.  I  only  know  that  at  this  moment  I  stand  in 
a  maze,  waiting.  I  have  been  little  inclined  to  wait  for 
anyone  else,  but  now  I  must  wait  for  myself.  But  of  you. 
Will  you  go  on  with  this  work  ?  " 

"  I  do  not  know,"  said  Joyce  hesitatingly. 

He  gave  her  a  keen  look,  and  the  conscious  color  that 
flashed  into  her  face  told  what  she  would  not.  He  looked 
thoughtfully  away,  and  when  he  spoke  again  he  seemed 
to  have  gone  on  to  another  thought. 

"  We  have  dreamed  dreams  of  serving  our  fellowmen, 
and  brave  dreams  they  were,  however  we  may  have  blun 
dered  in  trying  to  realize  them.  We  need  not  give  them 
up  altogether  because  the  lesson  of  humility  comes  rather 
sharply.  The  '  Justice '  may  go.  I  accept  my  lesson. 
Somewhere  else  there  is  work  for  me  to  do.  And  for  you, 
too.  That  is  what  I  began  to  say.  If  any  desire  remains 
to  help  the  world  on,  to  bring  about  the  day  of  deliver 
ance  of  which  we  have  talked,  turn  it  to  account  by  teach 
ing  women  to  be  true.  The  hope  of  the  world  rests  with 
its  women  and  its  workers,  some  one  has  said." 

"  Yes,  Ibsen." 

"  Is  it  ?  Others,  too.  There  is  much  talk  of  woman's 
mission  nowadays,  and  woman's  emancipation,  and  women 
are  beginning  to  complain  that  but  one  talent  has  been 
entrusted  to  them  while  to  their  brothers  were  given  five 
talents  and  ten.  You  are  given  to  religion,  you  women. 
It  might  be  well  for  you  to  remember  what  was  said  to 
the  servant  who  betrayed  the  trust  of  the  one  talent,  yet 
asked  for  more." 

"  What  is  woman's  one  talent ?      asked  Joyce,  with    a 


334  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

hint  of  her  old  smile.  Karl  Bahrdt  was  Karl  Bahrdt 
still  ! 

"Is  it  not  love?  You  wondered  what  I  was  doing 
while  away.  I  was  trying  to  understand.  And  I  saw  that 
in  some  ways  I  have  been  wrong.  Not  wrong  in  thinking 
that  it  is  enough  for  a  woman  to  love  but  wrong  in  not 
seeing  that  to  love  she  must  think.  My  attitude  has  been 
that  of  man  in  general.  We  have  taught  women  to  be 
false  in  the  matter  of  love  by  making  it  her  merchandise, 
with  which  to  gain  what  man  gains  by  wit,  energy,  intelli 
gence.  We  have  made  her  pay  Caesar's  tax  with  the  coin 
of  God,  and  have  starved  her  into  falsehood  until  the  lie 
has  entered  her  soul  and  colored  her  nature  and  God 
knows  whether  it  is  possible  for  her  ever  to  recover  her 
soul's  dower  of  honesty." 

"  Now  you  are  unjust,"  cried  Joyce.  "  There  are  many 
women  who  are  as  sweet  and  true  as  any  dream  of  woman 
hood  could  be." 

"  A  pleasant  belief  to  hold,"  he  said,  with  a  touch  of  his 
old  cynicism.  "  But  your  many  must  be  many  more 
before  they  become  a  majority.  Do  you  deny  that  ?  " 

"  I  don't  believe  it,"  said  Joyce  stoutly.  "  Why,  it 
seems  to  me  that  most  people  are  good  and  happy." 

He  laughed. 

"  You  are  learning  from  another  master,  my  old  pupil  ! 
Well,  keep  your  faith  as  long  as  you  can, — for  it  is  hard 
to  live  without  it."  Then  he  turned  upon  her  sharply 
and  quickly.  "  But  do  not  fall  into  the  happy  woman's 
mistake  of  believing  that  because  her  own  sky  is  clear 
and  her  own  lot  pleasant,  there  really  isn't  enough  pain  in 
the  world  for  anyone  to  take  much  bother  about.  The 
condition  laid  upon  humanity,  and  most  of  all,  it  seems, 
upon  women,  is  that  one  must  suffer  to  keep  from  grow 
ing  blind  to  the  suffering  of  others.  Your  lot  will  be  a 
happy  one,  if  signs  hold  true,  and  I  do  not  grudge  you 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY,  335 

the  happiness,  but  this  is  my  parting  injunction  to  you, 
my  old  pupil,— never  to  let  your  own  happiness  become 
an  anodyne  to  deaden  your  sensitiveness  to  the  pain  of 
the  world.  That,  and  this,  too,  that  when  you  have  an 
opportunity  to  show  women  the  need  of  being  true  to 
their  truest  self,  you  dare  not  keep  silent." 

"  Your  parting  injunction  ? "  asked  Joyce  anxiously. 
"  Are  you  going  away." 

"Yes." 

"  For  long?  " 

"  I  cannot  say,"  he  answered  evasively.  "  Indeed,  I  do 
not  know,"  he  added,  meeting  her  questioning  glance. 

"  But  you  must  know,"  she  persisted  with  a  vague 
uneasiness.  "  Are  you  going  east  ?  To  Europe  ?  You 
need  not  think  you  can  throw  us  off.  We  have  a  right 
to  know." 

"  Do  not  fear,"  he  said  with  an  amused  smile.  "  I  shall 
not  make  away  with  myself."  He  paused,  then  added 
steadily,  "  Neither  would  I  have  you  think  of  me  as 
going  about  the  world  maimed  or  crippled  because  of— 
what  has  been.  If  I  have  lost  something,  the  wound  has 
healed,  and  when  a  man  has  .work  to  do  it  is  well  for  him 
to  be  free.  Fate  is  sometimes  a  wise  surgeon." 

"  But  at  any  rate  you  will  write,"  she  urged. 

"  If  there  is  anything  to  tell,  I  will  write,"  he  said 
quietly.  "  That  will  be  when  I  see  my  way  clear.  Just 
now, — I  wait."  He  took  her  hand  and  held  it  with  a 
kindly  pressure,  and  a  smile  came  into  his  eyes.  "Your 
way  seems  clear  ?  I  am  glad.  For  me, — '  I  go  to  prove 
my  soul.'  " 

He  pressed  her  hand  again,  and  smiled  as  though  he 
would  willingly  blot  out  all  sadness  in  her  last  thoughts 
of  him,  and  then  he  said  farewell. 


XXXVI. 

BEN  BAILY  was  waiting  for  Paul  in  the  Chicago  depot 
when  the  Hereward  train  came  in  at  noon  on  Sunday. 
He  had  stipulated  that  he  should  be  let  alone  and  his 
plan  of  operations  left  free  from  interference,  and  Paul 
had  not  seen  him  since  bringing  him  to  the  city.  Now 
he  was  lounging  in  a  doorway,  his  queer  attire  drawing 
all  eyes  upon  him,  but  he  was  as  serenely  master  of  himself 
as  a  prince.  Paul  stopped  to  watch  him  for  a  moment,  and 
wondered  whether  he  would  ever  reach  a  stage  of  such 
supreme  indifference  to  ordinary  concerns.  Not  while 
Joyce  lived,  at  any  rate  ! 

But  Baily  came  forward  with  some  confession  of  inter 
est  on  his  face  when  Paul  appeared. 

"  So  they  actually  burnt  the  Works,"  he  said,  as  they 
walked  out  of  the  building  together.  "  Made  a  clean  job 
of  it!  I  hadn't  giv' them  credit  for  so  much  spunk.  I 
didn't  really  mean  that  they  should  go  so  far." 

"  What  did  you  have  to  do  with  it  ?  " 

"  Oh,  mebbe  nothing,"  he  said  indifferently.  "  I  just 
had  an  idee  that  if  I  went  in  there  would  be  a  strike. 
And  I  counted  on  your  obstinacy,  you  see." 

Paul  stared  at  him  in  astonishment,  and  when  he 
grasped  the  idea  he  looked  as  though  in  doubt  whether 
to  laugh  or  be  angry. 

"  You  villain  !  Do  you  mean  to  say  that  you  have 
been  plotting  for  this  ?  Have  I  been  the  center  of  one  of 
your  particular  schemes  without  knowing  it  ?  I  have  a 
mind  to " 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  337 

"  I  gave  you  fair  warning." 

"  I  have  a  mind  to  go  back  into  business,  just  to  prove 
that  obstinacy  you  counted  on." 

"  Oh,  no,  you  won't.  You  ain't  no  fool.  Lord,  you 
know  you  wan't  no  good  at  the  business.  If  you  had 
been,  I  wouldn't  have  interfered,  any  more  than  I'd  in 
terfere  with  the  corn  a-growing.  You  were  going  in  for 
philanthropy,  and  it  wasn't  your  business." 

"  Why,  philanthropy  is  everyone's  business,  for  that 
matter." 

"  Oh,  no,  it  ain't.  Every  man's  business  is  to  live  right 
himself,  and  then  there  won't  be  any  philanthropy 
needed.  That  is  for  those  who  are  no  good  to  the  uni 
verse  themselves,  and  so  have  to  throw  a  little  charity  in 
to  boot  in  the  bargain.,  But  you  are  worth  par  value." 

"  If  I  could  afford  to  quarrel  with  you,  I'd  do  it  in  a 
minute,  but  I  suppose  I  must  put  up  with  your  atrocious 
machinations  until  I  see  whether  you  can  do  anything  for 
Mabie,  and  then  I'll  get  even  with  you  in  some  way." 

"  You  won't  have  to  wait  long,  then.  Mabie's  all 
right.  I  forgot  to  tell  you." 

"Do  you  mean  that  he  is  cleared?  Ben,  do  you  really 
mean  it  ?  Confound  you,  why  didn't  you  say  so  ?  How 
did  you  do  it  ?  " 

"  Why,  I  got  the  janitor  to  see  that  he'd  better  confess. 
Hamon  changed  the  pictures  after  he  bought  the  copy  of 
Mabie,  and  the  janitor  knew  enough  to  be  paid  to  keep 
quiet.  It  was  easy  to  see.  The  only  thing  was  to  get 
him  to  speak  out." 

"  How  did  you  do  it  ?  " 

"  Oh,  well,  that's  my  affair,"  Baily  protested,  looking 
down. 

"  Oh,  come,  Ben,  it  is  my  affair,  too  !  You  have  no 
idea  how  much  it  is  my  affair.  Does  Jordan  know  ?  " 

"  Yes,  he's  taken  it  all  down  in  due  form  so  that  he  can 


338  APPRENTICES   TO  DESTINY. 

use  it  before  the  Grand  Jury,  to-morrow, — a  disposition, 
or  something  of  that  sort.  Hamon  has  been  arrested. 
It  is  all  straight." 

"  But  how  did  you  do  it  ?  " 

"  Didn't  you  ever  see  one  of  them  cheerful  and  inspirit 
ing  pictures  that  the  manufacturers  of  burglar-proof  safes 
send  around  at  Christmas,  of  burglars  tying  up  a  cashier 
that  didn't  have  a  burglar-proof  safe,  and  asking  him 
questions, — with  emphasis  ?  Well,  I  took  a  hint.  If  it 
works  in  a  bad  cause,  why  won't  it  work  in  a  good  one, 
says  I.  And  it  did  work,  first-rate." 

"  Torture  ?  " 

"  Morally  applied,  of  course.  Nagging,  in  other  words. 
I  nagged  him.  Had  to  do  it.  Nothing  to  be  proud  of. 
There  wasn't  no  other  way.  I  nagged  him,  morning, 
noon  and  night.  I  slept  with  him  and  woke  with  him, — 
not  much  sleeping,  altogether,  because  I  was  afraid  he'd 
give  me  the  slip.  He  tried  it.  I  let  him  see  that  he 
couldn't  dodge  me  or  shake  me,  and  that  he  had  me  on 
his  hands  until  death  us  did  part,  unless  he  spoke  out. 
And  I  kept  up  the  nagging.  Ashamed  of  myself,  but  it 
had  to  be.  I  knew  I  could  stand  it  longer  than  he  could. 
It  is  a  powerful  weapon.  There  weren't  no  question  but 
of  how  long  it  would  take.  He  caved  yesterday  and  gave 
up  the  game,  and  I  had  him  around  to  Jordan's  office  im 
mediate." 

Rodman  found  that  the  story  was  true.  Mabie's  inno 
cence  of  connection  with  the  robbery  was  completely  es 
tablished  by  the  janitor's  evidence,  and  when  the  case  came 
up  before  the  Grand  Jury  the  next  day  it  was  dismissed 
without  making  a  ripple.  Paul  telegraphed  the  news  to 
Hamill,  and  then  took  charge  of  the  artist  with  filial  en 
thusiasm.  Mabie  had  only  just  been  able  to  leave  the 
hospital,  and  was  still  pale  and  gaunt  from  his  illness. 
The  sense  of  being  a  martyr  brought  some  consolation, 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY,  339 

however,  and  he  accepted  the  flattering  attention  of  the 
younger  man  with  a  graciousness  that  it  was  a  delight  to 
see. 

"  What  an  unpleasant  thing  this  same  law  is,  however 
you  look  at  it,"  he  exclaimed  when  they  were  back  in 
Paul's  apartment.  "  It  is  like  an  octopus.  When  it  once 
gets  its  rudimentary  mind  turned  in  your  direction,  there 
is  no  escape  for  you.  I  have  been  going  through  this 
thing  in  anticipation  for  five  months,  and  I  suppose  it  will 
take  five  months  more  before  I  succeed  in  quite  forget 
ting  it.  But  what  is  that  to  the  octopus  ?  What  does  it 
care  whether  it  feeds  on  artist  or  arrowroot  ?  " 

"You  say  you  anticipated  this?"  Paul  could  not  re 
frain  from  asking. 

"  From  the  time  I  discovered  that  my  copy  was  hanging 
in  the  gallery.  You  may  imagine  my  sensations  at  that 
moment.  I  wasn't  clear  as  to  whether  it  was  witchcraft 
or  hallucination,  but  I  saw  at  once  that  other  people 
might  give  it  a  still  more  unpleasant  name.  Of  course  I 
suspected  Hamon  must  have  something  to  do  with  it,  but 
I  didn't  see  my  way  to  proving  it.  Besides,  it  might  as 
easily  have  been  one  remove  further  on.  Besides,  I — my 
terms  with  Hamon  were  such  that —  Oh,  I  hated  to  be 
mixed  up  with  it  in  any  way." 

Paul  listened  with  the  gravest  courtesy. 

"  Then  one  day, — it  was  the  very  day  that  Joyce  went  to 
Hereward, — I  saw  in  the  papers  that  the  substitution  of  the 
pictures  had  been  discovered.  I  felt  that  the  bottom  was 
dropping  out  of  things,  and  I  wanted  to  be  as  far  away  as 
possible.  So  I  went  off  on  a  sketching  tour.  But  I 
couldn't  sketch.  I  couldn't  do  anything.  I  knew  all  the 
time  how  it  was  going  to  end,  and  at  last  I  came  back  to 
see  Hamon  and  have  it  out  with  him.  As  luck  would 
have  it,  the  original  had  just  turned  up  in  New  York,  and 
had  been  traced  to  Hamon,  and  everything  had  come  to 


340  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

a  focus,  and  they  were  trying  to  find  me.  Hamon  had 
been  called  upon  to  explain  how  the  picture  came  into 
his  possession,  and  it  was  a  simple  stroke  of  genius  on  his 
part  to  say  that  he  had  bought  it  of  me  as  a  copy.  He 
knew  of  course  that  the  real  copy  would  be  identified  as 
my  work  by  those  who  knew  my  style.  It  all  hung  to 
gether  beautifully.  It  was  too  simple  a  story  to  have 
any  weak  points.  It  never  occurred  to  me  that  the  jani 
tor  could  be  implicated.  I  had  more  faith  in  him  !  " 

"  So  had  Hamon,  apparently.  But  Ben  Baily  possesses 
an  eloquence  of  his  own." 

"  Who  is  this  Ben  Baily  ?  " 

"  He  is  a  Hereward  genius.  You  must  know  him.  We 
will  all  go  up  together  this  afternoon." 

Tom  Garner  winced. 

"Hereward?  So  soon?"  He  evidently  felt  that  the 
contamination  of  the  prison  still  lingered  in  his  at 
mosphere,  but  Paul's  deference  gradually  restored  his 
wounded  self-respect,  and  after  a  little  persuasion  he  con 
sented  to  go  up  at  once. 


XXXVII. 

TOM  GARNER'S  return  to  Hereward  was  in  the  nature 
of  a  triumph.  When  he  came  up  to  Mrs.  HamilPs  door, 
wrapped  in  shawls  and  leaning  on  Paul's  arm,  his  beauti 
ful  long  face  pale  and  his  beautiful  gray  hair  more  silvery 
than  before,  there  was  a  little  group  of  friends  waiting 
on  the  piazza,  to  do  him  honor.  His  heart  swelled  with 
innocent  gratification.  The  half-dozen  people  were  a 
modest  multitude  in  his  eyes,  and  he  himself  was  draped 
about  with  the  glory  of  unmerited  suffering.  Joyce  came 
down  the  path  and  caught  him  in  her  arms  and  laughed 
and  pretended  she  wasn't  crying  in  a  way  that  was  very 
unlike  the  self-poised  Joyce  of  old.  Then  the  others 
came  to  be  presented,  and  Mabie  was  the  hero  of  the  oc 
casion  and  Paul  the  chief  lord-in-waiting,  and  the  old 
wide  piazza  was  the  scene  of  an  ovation  that  brought  a 
flush  into  the  pale  cheek  of  the  graceful  old  man.  He 
bent  over  Drusilla's  hand  and  murmured  something  about 
her  goodness  to  Joyce  that  made  her  eyes  glisten.  Prof. 
Hamill  beamed  upon  him  with  the  delighted  enthusiasm 
he  only  gave  to  his  own  antitheses,  and  even  Hale,  who 
had  been  prejudiced  against  him,  felt  that  a  man  who  had 
suffered  unjustly  by  the  law  was  in  a  manner  entitled  to 
the  protection  of  all  officers  of  the  court. 

Miss  Estee,  too,  was  there,  at  Mrs.  Hamill's  urgent  in 
vitation.  Why  should  she  not  come, — she,  the  old  friend 
of  Tom  Garner  and  of  his  wife  ?  No  reason,  surely.  Yet 
she  sat  a  little  apart  with  a  restless  sparkle  in  the  depths 
of  her  eyes.  For  years  her  life  had  flowed  an  even  cur- 


342  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

rent,  carrying  the  trifles  of  quiet  days  and  only  at  times 
rippling  with  memories  that  had  grown  gently  sad.  She 
had  come  to  rest  on  it  and  to  dread  the  introduction  of  a 
new  element,  and  it  is  a  dangerous  thing  to  evoke  ghosts 
out  of  the  past.  They  may  bring  desolation  in  their  foot 
steps. 

"  Eleanor  Estee,"  the  ghost  said,  with  the  familiar, 
lingering  intonation,  and  he  held  her  hand  and  looked 
into  her  face.  "  I  thought  I  was  old  and  that  the  world 
had  gone  by  me.  I  see  now  that  I  was  mistaken." 

"Are  you  so  sure  of  that?"  she  asked,  smiling  back 
serenely.  "Joyce  is  as  old  as  our  Helen  was  when  we 
last  were  here  together." 

"  True,"  he  said  softly,  and  he  let  her  hand  go. 

"  I  remember  very  well  the  days  when  I  thought  Here- 
ward  a  Paradise,"  he  went  on,  when  they  had  enthroned 
him  in  a  big  chair  where  he  could  see  the  old  Jefferson 
tower,  and  the  familiar  street  of  the  old  town,  and  Joyce  had 
wrapped  rugs  and  shawls  about  him  like  an  oriental.  "  It 
has  preserved  the  character  wonderfully  well,  for  its 
years  !  What  a  very  pleasant  arrangement  it  is  that  the 
Paradises  of  the  earth  keep  up  their  old  trick  of  blooming 
through  all  the  generations  of  angels, — eh,  Joyce  ?  "  She 
looked  so  defenseless  that  he  went  on,  to  cover  her  em 
barrassment,  "  I  think  that  my  old  ambitions  might  come 
back  here,  and  perhaps  some  of  my  old  enthusiasm." 

"Why  can't  you  stay?'*  asked  Hamill  eagerly.  "It 
would  be  delightful  for  us,  and  now  that  Joyce  is  a  landed 
proprietor  in  Hereward,  you  certainly  ought  to." 

"What  do  you  say,  Joyce?  Shall  we  spend  the  autumn 
in  the  old  house  with  the  tower  ?  " 

"  If  you  would  like  it." 

He  looked  at  her  with  a  quiet  smile  and  half  sighed. 
Then  he  glanced  at  Edith  and  his  artist  eye  lit  up. 
"Yes,  I  would  like  it.  I  could  make  some  studies." 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  343 

Edith  had  been  sitting  by,  rather  listless  and  indifferent 
in  the  midst  of  the  general  excitement,  but  she  found  an 
opportunity  to  turn  to  her  husband  with  a  flash  of  interest. 

"  Doesn't  he  paint  portraits,  Stephen  ? "  she  asked 
guardedly.  "  Why  can't  you  have  him  stay  here  long 
enough  to  paint  mine  ?  " 

"  Why,  what  for  ?  "  he  asked  with  frank  surprise. 

"Oh,  just  for  fun.  I  have  always  wanted  to  have  my 
portrait  painted.  It  is  one  of  the  little  dreams  of  great 
ness  I  have  always  indulged  in,  and  I  have  never  had 
anything  but  photographs." 

"  Why,  you  wouldn't  want  your  own  portrait  staring  at 
you  all  the  time.'' 

"  You  ought  to  pretend  at  least  that  you  would  want 
it,"  she  pouted. 

"  I  am  not  good  at  pretending,"  he  said  shortly.  "  That 
is  what  you  are  always  saying.  I  ought  to  pretend  to  be 
this  and  pretend  to  be  that.  What's  the  use  of  it  ?" 

It  was  a  subject  that  had  come  up  often  enough  already 
in  their  married  life  to  have  an  edge.  Edith  looked 
down  and  said  nothing. 

"  I'll  ask  him  about  the  portrait,  if  you  like,"  he  said 
after  a  moment. 

"  Oh,  I  don't  care  now,"  she  retorted  loftily. 

He  looked  baffled  and  impatient,  but  there  was  no 
chance  for  further  converse. 

"  By  the  way,  where  is  Bahrdt  ?  "  Mabie  was  asking. 

"  He  went  away  Saturday/'  Dru  said  quite  cheer 
fully.  Hale  darted  a  quick  look  at  his  wife.  Dru  saw, 
though  she  was  talking  so  busily.  Joyce  did  not  see,  for 
she  dared  not  look  up  very  often.  Paul's  eyes  seemed 
always  to  meet  hers,  and  though  she  need  not  fear  to 
understand  their  language  she  could  not  answer  here  and 
now. 

"Bahrdt  is  a   child   of  the  age,"  Mabie   said,  with    the 


344  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

gentle  assumption  of  authority  which  sat  so  well  upon  him. 
"  In  my  time,  we  malcontents  took  the  esthetic  line  of 
revolt.  We  protested  against  the  hampering  bonds  of  tra 
dition  and  convention.  We  wanted  to  be  free  from  them, 
and  we  declared  ourselves  Bohemians  and  wore  rolling 
collars  and  disdained  meat.  Now  the  same  spirit  of  dis 
content  has  taken  the  ethical  form  of  manifestation  and 
its  devotees  are  reformers.  They  see  the  injustice  of  the 
world  standing  in  the  way  of  its  redemption,  just  as  we  of 
a  former  generation  blamed  its  hard  and  fast  customs. 
That  is  why  I  have  always  liked  Bahrdt.  He  is  a  mod 
ernized  and  moralized  version  of  a  certain  youth  I  knew, 
— how  many  years  ago,  Eleanor?  Better  success  to 
him  !  " 

"  His  success  will  be  less  in  doing  anything  in  particu 
lar,  I  fancy,  than  in  just  being  himself,"  said  the  Professor 
with  sparkling  eyes.  "  He  was  fond  of  talking  of  the  day 
of  deliverance  which  might  come  to  humanity,  but  I  think 
it  will  come,  if  at  all,  more  by  his  indirect  influence  than 
by  his  direct  efforts.  You  can't  preach  people  to  a 
reform,  but  you  can  lift  them  to  it.  He  is  a  power, 
because  he  is  so  absolutely  true." 

Edith  Hale  sat  silent. 

"  He  is  sincere,  I've  no  doubt,"  said  Hale  impatiently, 
"but  there  is  no  use  ignoring  the  fact  that  he  is  a  mis 
chief-maker  and  a  firebrand.  What  can  he  do  with  all  his 
scheming  ?  Only  make  people  a  little  more  discontented, 
a  little  nearer  anarchy,  than  they  would  be  otherwise." 

"  Oh,  he  does  a  good  deal  more  than  that,"  cried  Paul 
loyally,  "  and  I  wish  I  had  him  here  now  to  help  me  out. 
What  am  I  going  to  do  with  these  people  who  have 
thrown  themselves  out  of  work,  with  winter  pretty  near  ? 
Wash  my  hands  of  them,  I  dare  say,  though  that  isn't  the 
ideal  thing.  If  I  were  an  Englishman,  now,  I  could  pack 
them  off  to  America,  but  being  in  America  I  don't  see 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  345 

what  opening  there  is.  America  needs  an  annex,  where 
we  can  send  people  we  want  to'  be  rid  of  and  pretend 
we  are  philanthropic  and  magnanimous  at  the  same 
time." 

"  What  ought  to  be  done,"  suggested  the  Professor 
placidly,  "  is  to  send  them  to  school  and  give  them  a 
course  of  social  science,  philosophy  and  economics,  with 
Marcus  Aurelius  to  top  off  with." 

"But  what  are  they  going  to  do  ?"  asked  Dru,  with 
visions  of  blue,  famished  faces  and  bare  feet  drifting  be 
fore  her.  She  had  seen  them  like  that  in  pictures. 

"  Oh,  they  will  go  away  and  be  dissipated  among  the 
community  at  large." 

"  The  problem  is  not  solved  so." 

"  No,  and  I  can't  solve  it,"  said  Paul.  "  I  acknowledge 
myself  a  failure.  I  suspect  no  one  can  solve  it  but  the 
people  themselves.  They  must  work  out  their  own  deliv 
erance,  and  learn  by  practically  knocking  their  heads 
against  the  walls  that  there  are  certain  limits.  They  will 
come  to  see  that  ignorance  is  undesirable  and  crime  un 
profitable  and  that  power  over  others  is  not  what  it  is 
popularly  supposed  to  be." 

"  What  would  make  peace  on  the  earth  ?  "  asked  the  Pro 
fessor  musingly.  "  Would  it  come  if  each  individual  were 
so  firmly  bound  by  a  net-work  of  laws  that  wrong-doing 
would  be  impossible  ?  That  is  what  some  of  our  advo 
cates  of  a  golden  socialism  claim.  They  do  not  object  to 
the  present  system  of  law-making,  only  to  its  application. 
If  they  could  make  the  laws,  and  a  good  many  more  of 
them,  it  would  be  all  right.  But  I'm  not  sure  the  day  of 
deliverance  won't  come  nearer  when  each  one  learns  that 
he  must  be  a  law  unto  himself  and  abide  by  that  law- 
making  so  faithfully  that  it  will  be  impossible  for  him  to 
be  upset  by  the  pressing  of  his  neighbors." 

"  I'm  afraid   I  have  delivered   myself  from   little  but 


346  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTIA'Y. 

cash,"  cried  Mabie,  with  rather  a  rueful  laugh.  "  What 
have  you  done  in  the  world,  Eleanor  ? " 

"  Looked  on  and  made  remarks  about  people  and  per 
suaded  them  that  I  was  very  wise,"  she  answered  promptly. 
"  Oh,  I  have  my  problems,  too.  For  one  thing,  there  is  the 
little  fact  that  book-reviewers  are  mostly  men  and  the 
readers  mostly  women.  If  you  write  with  an  eye  to  get 
ting  good  notices  your  book  isn't  read,  and  if  you  write 
for  readers  the  superior  critics  sniff  at  you." 

"Which  way  do  you  let  your  heart  mostly  incline  ?" 

"  Oh,  I  take  them  alternately,  like  homoeopathic  medi 
cines.  By  and  by,  when  I  am  famous  enough  to  dispense 
with  notices  and  rich  enough  to  dispense  with  readers,  I 
will  be  a  law  unto  myself  and  write  for  my  own  delecta 
tion.  Then  I  shall  have  an  audience  able  to  appreciate 
all  my  little  things  !  There  will  be  no  moral  reflections 
too  deeply  hidden  for  recognition,  no  careless  mistaking 
of  pathos  for  bathos." 

"  Have  they  done  such  things  to  you  ?  " 

"  Oh,  I  don't  complain.  As  a  whole,  I  like  it  all. 
People  come  and  go  and  make  groups  and  separate  and 
cross  from  L  to  R  and  up  stage  and  down  to  C,  and  some 
times  they  are  effective*  and  I  enjoy  the  effectiveness,  and 
sometimes  they  are  unutterably  stupid  and  never  know  it, 
poor  things." 

"  There,  at  least,  we  have  the  advantage  of  you." 

"  Oh,  I  don't  know.  I'm  not  sure  but  what  I  am  wil 
ling  to  endure  the  stupidity  for  the  sake  of  the  superior 
feeling  it  gives  me  to  recognize  it.  The  easiest  way  in 
the  world  to  assure  yourself  of  your  own  superiority  is  to 
criticise  others.  To  climb  to  superiority  is  much  harder." 

They  all  laughed,  but  presently  Mabie,  leaning  back, 
sighed  a  little  and  closed  his  eyes.  Joyce  saw  it  at  once. 

"  You  are  tired  ?  Will  you  not  come  in  and  lie  down  ? 
It  has  been  a  hard  day." 


APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY.  347 

"  It  has  been  one  of  the  brightest  days  in  the  calendar," 
he  said,  but  he  suffered  her  to  lead  him  away,  graceful 
and  debonair  to  the  last,  as  he  waved  his  hand  to  them  all 
from  the  doorway. 

Miss  Estee,  too,  rose. 

"  I  must  go,"  she  said.  "  I  have  been  idle  for  a  long 
time,  but  to-night  I  am  going  to  write.  That  is  my  way 
to  the  day  of  deliverance,"  she  said  gaily.  "  Ah,  you 
people  may  talk,  but  art  is  the  only  reality  !  " 

"  Law  is  the  only  reality,"  Hale  said.  "  That  is  what 
these  hare-brained  dreamers  will  learn  some  day.  Edith 
and  I  will  walk  around  with  you.'1 

Edith  rose  indifferently,  and  though  she  walked  beside 
her  husband  she  had  no  look  for  him,  even  when  they  left 
Miss  Estee  at  her  own  door  and  went  on  alone  through 
the  twilit  street  to  the  house  they  called  home. 

"  I  know  what  the  reality  is,"  Uru  whispered  to  her 
husband  when  they  were  gone.  And  he  looked  into  her 
eyes  and  smiled. 

"  Do  you  ?      Wise  little  woman  !  " 

When  Joyce  came  out  again  there  was  no  one  there  but 
Paul.  She  drew  back  with  a  sudden  shyness  at  meeting 
him  alone,  but  he  sprang  up  at  once  and  came  to  her. 

"Don't  go  in.  Come  out  into  the  garden.  The  sum 
mer  is  going  so  fast  we  mustn't  miss  any  of  the  sunshine. 
Isn't  the  old  garden  beautiful  after  those  dusty  weeks  in 
town  ?  " 

"Yes." 

It  wasn't  much  to  say,  but  her  look  said  more  as  it 
rested  upon  the  old-fashioned  flowers  and  the  paths 
flooded  with  the  low  sunlight.  They  walked  on  and  he 
watched  her  in  silence  for  a  few  moments,  content  to  see 
the  tranquil  light  that  had  come  over  her  face.  The  ask 
ing  look,  the  aloofness  that  had  marked  the  Joyce  Mabie 
of  the  early  summer,  had  been  lost  in  arrowing  sweet- 


348  APPRENTICES  TO  DESTINY. 

ness  which  was  not  new  to  his  eyes,  though  it  might  seeoi 
so  to  others.  He  had  always  known  it  was  there,  and  he 
never  knew  how  much  his  love  had  had  to  do  with  bring 
ing  it  out. 

She  felt  his  eyes  upon  her  and  looked  up  to  meet  them. 

"  Is  all  right  with  the  world  at  last  ?  "  he  asked  with  a 
deep  thrill  in  his  voice. 

Her  steady  eyes  did  not  fall,  but  into  them  came  a 
light  of  gladness,  of  triumph,  of  humble,  wonderful  love 
that  made  him  tremble. 

"Yes,"  she  said. 

"  I  am  not  particularly  proud  of  my  Hereward  experi 
ment,"  he  said  later,  when  he  had  told  her  about  the  Al- 
lentown  prospects.  "  I  thought  I  was  going  to  be  a  sort 
of  shining  example  to  the  nation,  and  I  haven't  shone 
worth  mentioning.  I  have  always  thought  rows  both  fool 
ish  and  vulgar,  and  I  have  been  drawn  into  the  biggest 
sort  of  a  row,  and,  what  is  worse,  was  beaten  in  it.  I  had 
a  whole  outfit  of  beautiful  ideas.  They  are  in  rags.  I've 
swamped  my  newly-got  fortune  and  destroyed  a  valuable 
branch  of  industry  in  the  community.  As  a  social  revolu 
tionist,  I  certainly  have  made  as  successful  a  failure  as 
most  men,  with  no  greater  opportunities,  could  have 
done." 

"  And  for  how  much  of  it  all  am  I  responsible  ?  "  Joyce 
asked  with  drooping  head. 

"  For  a  good  deal  of  it,  thank  Heaven,"  he  answered 
with  great  cheerfulness.  "  If  you  think  you  haven't  been 
particularly  nice  to  me  of  late,  there  is  a  chance  now  for 
you  to  reform.  Don't  look  so  tragic  !  Take  it  right 
through,  I  don't  think  the  summer  has  been  altogether  a 
failure  !  " 


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